The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 19, 1984 - Page 7
Auditors
investigate
student aid
for trade
schools
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal
auditors say that lax admission stan-
dards by some trade schools wind up
costing the government millions of
dollars in wasted student aid.
The General Accounting Office, in a
" report to Congress, said the Education
Department needs to keep a closer
Watch on the 1,725 trade schools, whose
students got $278 million in Pell GrantE
in 1980-81.
AN EDUCATION Department of-
ficial defended the "open enrollment"
policies used by some of these schools
and rejected a GAO recommendation
that the government impose tighter
admission standards.
Among the abuses the auditors found
was one school that ran a "Name a
Hairstyle" contest with prizes of one
full scholarship worth $2,025 and nine
partial scholarships from $300 to $500.
The school covered most of the costs of
fthe top prize by pocketing the winner's
$1,750 Pell Grant, the GAO said.
The GAO audited records of 35 schools
in 15 states from 1980-81 that had 761
students getting government grants.
'" THE GAO said the schools were
, elected at random to represent 1,165,
et about two-thirds of all proprietary,
""t profit-making, trade schools, with
123,000 students. These schools teach
such trades as acting, art, broad-
casting, cosmetology, business, fashion
design and secretarial skills.
It said most of the schools admitted
students who did not have a high school
diploma or an equivalency degree.
'Education Department rules state that
to get a grant, a student must have a
-diploma or demonstrate ability to
#benefit from training.
The GAO estimated that 14,900 of the
123,000 students were admitted without
'a diploma or test results to indicate
6 'they could benefit from the training.
"Almost three-quarters subsequently
dropped out before finishing their cour-
ses, but after drawing $13 million in
federal aid.
The agency also estimated that 83
percent of the schools failed to enforce
a rule that students make satisfactory
academic progress to keep getting aid.
"Some schools used "questionable
recruiting practices," including over-
blown claims about placing graduates
in jobs.
The GAO suggested that the
Education Department tighten the ad-
mission requirements for students get-
ting federal aid.
Edward Elmendorf, the depar-
t'ient's assistant secretary for post-
secondary education, disagreed,
saying, "We believe the Congress has
'made it quite clear that individuals
"should have every opportunity to obtain
training to prepare them for em-
ployment, which is embodied in the
open enrollment concept."
Court says
sleeping
drivers
01
blameless
LANSING, Mich. (UPI) - The
,Michigan Supreme Court yesterday
'ruled a motorist found sleeping in a
motionless car cannot be convicted of
drunken driving.
The 4-3 ruling reversed James
Pomeroy's conviction from Unionville
and that of Jessie Fulcher in Vassar.
Both were discovered slumped over
their steering wheels, intoxicated.
-Their cars were motionless but idling.
THE COURT majority said a person
who is sleeping cannot be operating or
in control of his vehicle.
"If the car had been in motion, the
person in the driver's seat might have
4been found to be 'operating' it even
though he asserted that he was asleep,"
the court said.
'If the person in the driver's seat had
been awake, he might have been found
to have been in such physical control of
the car as to support a conclusion that
he was operating it even if the car was
'motionless."
- i i r .._