Higher education officials in California have cracked down on the “fake students” enrolling in their community colleges, occupying much-needed seats and, in some cases, collecting federal and state student aid.
But they downplay the cost of the fraud, which Secretary of Education Linda McMahon recently estimated to be $1 billion nationally each year. One California community college professor sees fake students enroll in her classes every semester, and if her estimates are anywhere close, puts the fraud in the hundreds of millions in the Golden State alone.