Bad news continues to come out about the student loan scandals. The latest reports claim that high-level employees at the Department of Education were involved in impropriety. This scandal reaches down deep in the DOE, yet the secretary of the department denies any wrongdoing. The fact remains that taxpayers are out perhaps more than $1 billion because lenders were overcollecting on student loan payments and we – the taxpayers – subsidize those loans. There are so many levels to this story, and the truth will come out in due time.

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The other shoe to drop this week involves the release of the personal and financial information of 60 million students. The DOE has been allowing banks to go on school databases and snoop for this information. It’s not just ethically wrong; the potential risk of ID theft is huge. It’s clear that the entire student loan system needs to be revamped and made to answer for this corruption. In the meantime, remember to shop for your child’s student loans. And never rely on the lenders recommended by the school’s financial aid office. They simply can’t be trusted anymore.