EXCLUSIVE: California Republican lawmakers in Congress are calling on the Department of Justice and the Department of Education to investigate fake community college applications meant to take federal and state taxpayer dollars through financial aid.
In 2024, California community colleges claimed that 34% of their applicants were really an effort to defraud, which was an increase from 20% in 2020, data from the system’s chancellor’s office shows, according to CalMatters. The office estimates that $10 million in federal taxpayer dollars and $3 million in aid from the Golden State have been lost as a result of financial aid fraud, such as Pell Grants, according to the outlet.
“This is not a marginal issue. It represents a major misuse of public funds and a betrayal of the trust Californians place in their education institutions,” said the letter, led by Rep. Young Kim and signed by fellow California Republican Reps. Darrell Issa, Vince Fong, Ken Calvert, Doug LaMalfa, Jay Obernolte, Tom McClintock, Kevin Kiley and David Valadao.
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The letter added that the fraud hurts actual students in the system, especially those who are in “impacted” programs like nursing and accounting, according to the letter.
“While we acknowledge that there may be cuts in the Governor’s budget thereby creating obstacles for fraud prevention, this setback does not eliminate the responsibility that state and college leadership hold. Californians deserve a full account of how this was allowed to escalate and what concrete steps are being taken now to contain and resolve it,” it continues.
In addition to the investigation, lawmakers are asking the administration to “take immediate action to prevent further waste, fraud, and abuse of precious taxpayer dollars as Congress and the President seek a consensus on how to curb wasteful federal spending.”
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“This crisis strikes at the heart of fairness and access to education in California at a time that our state is facing a financial crisis,” the letter added.
There are 116 community colleges in California, with roughly 2.1 million students, according to the system’s website.
The Golden State continues to face major scrutiny over taxpayer issues in recent weeks, including with the state’s Medicaid program, which is facing financial woes that many critics attribute to a state law allowing illegal immigrants to enroll in the program – and state Republican lawmakers called for a formal audit of the program earlier this week.
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In the federal government, major cuts have been made in various agencies as a result of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and many grants have been canceled along with major staff layoffs across the board. The department’s website says it has saved $150 billion as of April 8.
The Department of Education said in a statement Friday night that fraud was made worse during the Biden administration.
“Fraud in the federal student aid programs is not new, but it was made dramatically worse by the Biden Administration’s intentional destruction of both loan origination and repayment systems in their effort to illegally transfer hundreds of billions of dollars in loans to taxpayers who did not benefit from them,” a spokesperson for the Department of Education told Fox News Digital.
“The previous administration repeatedly removed guardrails to verify that potential borrowers are eligible students rather than fraudsters or people in this country illegally.”
The Department of Justice did not have a comment on the matter.
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