"Simplifying the FAFSA is another significant action in our quest to keep a college degree within the reach of every person who aspires to higher education,” said Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, in a June 24 White House news conference announcing the changes.
The changes announced to the FAFSA process are:
- instant estimates of Pell Grant and student loan eligibility
- links to graduation rates and other college information
- students who are at least 24 or married, who are automatically exempted from providing their parents’ financial information, may skip the remaining 11 questions intended only to determine whether parental information is necessary
- men older than 26 may skip the question about Selective Service registration
- consolidation of the three questions on homelessness (available summer 2009)
- students with low incomes will no longer be asked for asset information, which is not used to determine their aid eligibility
- only returning students will be asked about prior drug convictions because the question does not affect first-year students
- seamless retrieval of relevant tax information from the IRS for easy completion of the online FAFSA (available in January 2010)
The U.S. Education Department will work with state agencies to make it easier to answer questions that the states need but the federal government does not, Duncan said.
The Administration plans to introduce legislation seeking to eliminate from the aid calculation formula financial information that is not available from the IRS, which will cut 26 financial questions from the FAFSA form that have little impact on aid awards and can be difficult to complete, the Education Department announced in a news release following the press conference.
Administration Takes Other Steps to Make College Affordable
The simplified FAFSA is one of several recent steps taken by the Obama Administration to improve access to higher education and make it more affordable, which, according to a fact sheet accompanying the news release, include:
- increasing Pell Grants by $500 to $5,350 for 2009-2010 and creation of the American Opportunity Tax Credit, a new $2,500 tax credit for four years of college tuition, which together would provide approximately $200 billion in college scholarships and tax credits over the next decade. The President’s 2010 Budget proposal would make these policies permanent.
- modernizing and expanding the Perkins Loan program to more than 2,600 additional schools and an estimated 2.7 million additional students each year.
- creating a new five-year, $2.5 billion fund to build federal-state-local partnerships aimed at improving college access and completion, particularly for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
In addition, Duncan said in the release that the Education Department had sent a letter in early April to financial aid administrators reminding them of their authority to make adjustments, on a case-by-case basis, to address circumstances, such as unemployment, not reflected on the original application.
“America’s future economic strength depends on the quality of our education,” the department’s fact sheet said. “Countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow.”
Reducing the length and complexity of the FAFSA form, which is required by most U.S. colleges and universities, will encourage more prospective students to apply for aid and increase opportunity for higher education for low and middle income American students, Duncan concluded.
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