GAO Confirms: It Did Nothing Wrong, and It’s None of Your Business

Today, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirmed what we already knew it would confirm: According to its own investigation, errors were made in producing a report highly damaging to for-profit colleges, but no one had any bad intentions and the report still stands. Well, the significantly revised report -- the one much more favorable to for-profits schools that got almost no attention because GAO sneaked it out -- still stands. And please, don't try to hold the GAO accountable yourself: The GAO's press release states that the report on its internal investigation will not be publicly released.

Now, it's quite possible that the GAO investigation on for-profit colleges really was on the up-and-up and there truly isn't anything to see here. But given the very basic things that the GAO, um, overlooked in its initial report -- not to mention the fact that the GAO works for the public -- it's simply not acceptable to tell the public that it's none of its beeswax what the GAO's internal investigation found. And really, why should anyone be satisfied with a government agency declaring itself its own judge and jury?