Educational institutions have adopted the idea that private, for-profit banking organizations are necessary and helpful in the management and distribution of funds from the government and colleges to students.
Del Mar College has been in business with for-profit banking institutions for nearly 10 years, despite a history of some of these companies being corrupt and robbing students of vital funds. BankMobile, formerly Higher One, itself isn’t even a bank that Del Mar is working with, rather, it’s a company that works with a bank to manage funds, putting students’ money into far too many hands.
So after lawsuits against Higher One for student disbursements and catastrophes with companies such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, why do colleges continue to put this money at risk and how can they be surprised when problems arise?
The problem is that it is not the college that is losing the money when dealing with companies like Higher One but the students who are being cheated from their financial aid refunds.
Del Mar needs to be diligent and responsible regarding the company with whom they choose to do business, perhaps choosing not to do business with a company that faced civil penalties from the FDIC.
It begs the question that if the college has known about Higher One’s issues, why would they renew a contract that traps them to use the company through 2018?
For-profit companies need to be kept away from our federal money; there has to be a way to manage money and omit the need for any third party.
Del Mar College already plans to move to a different company to manage the financial aid funds after the contract with BankMobile runs out.
Would this alternative service be any better? Will we be dealing with the same situation a few years into the future?
There’s a stereotypical fear that those who need financial aid will be the ones cheating the system, but what about when it’s an institution that advertises itself as a fair and safe mediator that does the cheating?
How can the students of our institution have faith in the college guaranteeing that they will get their complete refund with this service?
The people who are being taken advantage of are the people who can afford it the least.
College students are lucky enough to have enough money to get through the week.
So if there is an organization out there taking advantage of individuals working to better themselves and cheating them out on funds that can determine paying another semester or textbooks there seems to be something wrong with the way things operate.
The government and the nation’s colleges need to open their eyes to the real problem.
It is about time colleges extract for-profit companies from their business before they’re faced with irrevocable damage that can lead to a bad reputation of an institution.