There are those who would have you believe that the US Department of Education is a benevolent, or at least benign, public agency - practically a pussy cat, who just wants to help the little children. But make no mistake, this cat has teeth and they bite.
(photo courtesy of News10 KXTV)
A Stockton CA man was awoken on Tuesday at 6:00 a.m. by a SWAT team sent to his home by the Dept. of Education. After being held, along with his three children, in a squad car for 6 hours so federal agents could search his home, Mr. Wright was finally released, because the person they were looking for, his estranged wife, was not there. The law enforcement action came as a directive from the Officer of the Inspector General, a semi-independent branch of the education department that executes warrants for criminal offenses such as student aid fraud, embezzlement of federal aid and bribery.
Though the OIG would not comment specifically on why they had authorized the search warrant for Mr. Wright's home, they did say that it was "part of an ongoing criminal investigation," possibly into student loan fraud committed by Mr. Wright's estranged wife. We can only hope that Mrs. Wright was part of a massive fraud scheme involving hundreds of thousands of dollars. Otherwise the deployment of 15 SWAT members would seem excessive for perhaps failing to disclose a second source of income when applying for a student loan.
Mr. Wright is currently seeking restitution from the Dept of Ed for the cost of his door, which the SWAT team felt the need to break down just as he was answering their knock in his boxers. He would also like an apology for unnecessarily traumatizing his children. No response yet from the DOE on that.
Did you know that their was an enforcement division associated with the US Dept of Education? Did you know they had the ability to serve search warrants or that they came armed? According to their official statement,
“The Office of Inspector General is the law enforcement arm of the U.S. Department of Education and is responsible for the detection of waste, fraud, abuse, and other criminal activity involving Federal education funds, programs, and operations. As such, OIG operates with full statutory law enforcement authority, which includes conducting search warrants, making arrests, and carrying firearms. The acquisition of these firearms is necessary to replace older and mechanically malfunctioning firearms, and in compliance with Federal procurement requirements.
The DOE also recently purchased 27 fourteen inch barrel shotguns for this division, to replace older or malfunctioning ones. So remember when you are going up against the DOE for the Common Core Standards, Race To The Top or any of their other "helpful" programs and operations, they are coming to the table armed for enforcement . You can bet if the humble Dept. of Education has this kind of firepower and authority for enforcing their programs, the IRS will have even more for enforcing the Health Care Act. Is it time to stop the overreaching yet?
"hundreds of thousands of dollars" and then some. go to ed.gov and read about it. oh, by the way, most of these people aren't "students" either, just thieves
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