The state's student financial aid agency is under federal investigation to determine if it collected too much money from the federal government.

The U.S. Department of Education's inspector general yesterday said it is investigating whether the government overpaid the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency....

Michael Dannenberg, director of education policy at the New America Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan public policy group, criticized PHEAA, citing the agency's payment of six-figure bonuses to executives.

He said PHEAA's ability to pay those bonuses might hinge on "questionable billing."

"PHEAA's bad acts are symptomatic of an inefficient college loan system that provides too much financial aid to middlemen and banks and not enough to students and families," he said.

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