New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has touted student-loan reforms as a marquee achievement of a tenure that has put him on a path toward the governorship.
Yet two-and-a-half years later, $13 million he collected as part of a settlement with lenders and schools to be used to inform students about financial-aid options remains unspent.
That has left some of the people in the industry he targeted wondering what happened with the money.
"I don't think they've been transparent in how much they've collected and how the funds were going to be used," said Curtis Gaume, president of the New York State Financial Aid Administrators Association. "What bothers me is that the financial-aid community and the lending community were accused of not being transparent in disclosing information about lending practices."
Mr. Cuomo's office said it couldn't begin the process of establishing the fund until the money was all collected and until its nationwide investigation was complete, according to spokesman Richard Bamberger.
"Any suggestion that the student loan fund has been unduly delayed is wrong," he said.
Mr. Bamberger said the office has formed a review committee that includes student-loan experts who do not work for the office. That committee is now reviewing the applications it received through a bidding process. Mr. Bamberger wouldn't name the members of the committee or say when it was formed.
Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat widely expected to announce his candidacy for governor soon, hailed the fund in an August 2007 news release as a key result of his nationwide investigation that led to a shake-up of what had been an $85 billion student-loan industry. His campaign Web site lists it among his accomplishments as attorney general.
"The governor is responsible for the fiscal health of the state and this almost could be considered as a case study for Andrew Cuomo—how did he handle the money?" said Elena Lubimt
