The U.S. Department of Education is so concerned about the risk that dozens of colleges pose to students and taxpayers that it has curtailed access to federal money at those institutions -- but it won’t say which ones.
Even as it pushes to make far more information about colleges available to consumers, the department is keeping hidden from public view its decisions to punish certain colleges with funding restrictions known as heightened cash monitoring.
At the end of last October, 76 colleges or universities were subject to the most stringent form of those restrictions, according to the department. Another 455 institutions, as of last August, faced a lower level of scrutiny.
But the department has refused to provide the names of those colleges because of the "competitive injury" it may cause them.
"Given the highly competitive environment in which these institutions conduct business, any public release of the confidential financial standing of these institutions will likely cause the institutions substantial competitive injury," a department official, who declined to be named, wrote in an email to Inside Higher Ed on Tuesday.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/03/26/education-dept-keeps-secret-names-colleges-found-be-risky-students-taxpayers