There actually seems to be consensus from lawmakers in Washington for once. People on both sides of the aisle believe that the 108-question Free Application for Federal Student Aid needs to be simplified.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who has been championing FAFSA simplification for several years, named his bill for a two-question aid application as a top priority for this session and told Inside Higher Ed to expect it this spring.
President Obama has not gone quite so far in his proposal, but still wants to cut it down to 30 questions. According to Inside Higher Ed, his proposal revives a 2009 proposal to eliminate complicated questions relating to families’ business assets and investments.
The general consensus from both Republicans and Democrats is that the current FAFSA scares off families and that a simpler form would help boost enrollments of low-income students.
But this time it’s not their own gridlock that is standing in their way. Lawmakers face pushback from colleges and the states, IHE reported.
These groups argue that instead of just making it easier to apply, they make it harder for officials to determine who is actually in need of student aid.
“We have a limited pool of funds, and you’re taking a pool of applicants and trying to figure out the relative financial strengths to each other,” Justin Draeger, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, told Inside Higher Ed. “The less information you gather, the more everybody looks needy on paper.”
