Welcome simplification
White House moves to ease difficulty of complex federal college aid process
The process of providing federal aid to would-be college students is supposed to open doors, not shut them. Yet, for too long, one key step in the financial aid system has blocked far too many people from the very assistance it promises to provide.
That’s why Education Secretary Arne Duncan and IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman offered some very welcome news last week at the White House when they announced several simplifying changes to the process and asked Congress to approve even more improvements.
The much feared FAFSA—for Free Application for Federal Student Aid—is so long, complicated, redundant and intimidating that, for many, it might as well be called AHAYWEH— Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here.
The first lie for many is the first word of the title, free. While the federal and state governments don’t charge anything to file the information, the process is so complicated, and the unassisted cost of a college education so high, that various companies have sprung up to file the information for you—for a fee.
The outfits that peddle such services may be preying on the disadvantaged. But they are not lying when they note that even people who manage to fill out their own income tax forms every year can find themselves outmatched by the 153 questions families must answer to put their son or daughter’s name into the hat for federal Pell grants and various kinds of scholarships, loans and other assistance.
Duncan estimates that, over the years, hundreds of thousands of people have passed on the chance they may have otherwise had to go to college because they and their families couldn’t negotiate the complicated forms and the other steps in the process.
Those who accomplish the task are often rewarded with anything from low-cost loans to full-ride scholarships. And offering the chance to fill out one form, even a complicated one, has a definite advantage over a system where families would have to fill out a separate form for each college, scholarship program or loan office they may approach.
The proposed changes are part of Vice President Biden’s task force on helping the U. S. middle class. They are made necessary, not only by the fact that the aid process is so complex, but also by the trend of college tuition costs to climb far faster than the inflation rate. The veep says that, over the past 30 years, tuition costs have soared by as much as 186 percent while the median family income has climbed only 10 percent.
Getting more young people into college—including community colleges and trade schools—is essential for the next generation of Americans to keep up with the demands of the workplace and the global economy. Such educational opportunities do not benefit only the students and their families, but the whole of the economy as well.
That is why it is the federal government’s job to make a college education a realistic goal of American families. Reforming the FAFSA process will be a big step in that direction.
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