A bipartisan team of U.S. senators is proposing legislation to streamline the process of applying for federal financial aid from a 108-question document to a two-question postcard.
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, is 10-pages long and is accompanied by 72 pages of instructions. Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo., introduced a plan to simplify the student-loan program, allow for year-round Pell Grants and consolidate the form down to two questions: what is your family size, and what was your household income two years ago?
The two-question form is based on research from University of Michigan professor Susan Dynarski and Columbia University professor Judy Scott-Clayton that shows the government received all the information needed to allocate federal aid based on just two questions.
“We started looking at if you really need all that information, and it turned out you don’t,” Scott-Clayton said during a news conference last week.
Each year, students must fill out a FAFSA form to receive financial aid. During the 2013-14 school year, Fort Lewis College received 7,619 FAFSAs, and 60 percent of students receive financial aid, said Tracey Piccoli, the director of financial aid for the college. In the U.S., 20 million college students will complete the form this year.
Dynarski and Scott-Clayton estimated that nixing the form could save students’ families 100 million hours a year and cut $432 million on college administrative expenses – money that the senators say would go back into funding year-round Pell Grant loans. The legislation also would consolidate the six different types of loans into three.
“What we are doing is starting from scratch, turning 108 questions into a postcard and getting the money to eligible students,” Alexander said.
The senators say the daunting forms are keeping low-income students from applying for financial aid they could be eligible for. Bennet says this would simplify the process and increase the likelihood of potential students applying for aid.
“We live in a country today where 20 percent of this great democracy of ours – where if you are born into a low-income family – your chance of getting a college degree or equivalent of a college degree are nine in 100,” Bennet said. “In this global economy, that is a recipe for disaster for the country and for those folks.”
Piccoli said that while simplifying the document would help reduce errors, she doesn’t believe there would be a significant increase in the number of applications the college would receive just from reducing the document.
“We have many FAFSA sessions at local high schools and at FLC on evenings and weekends during the peak application-processing time to help families who have questions or need assistance,” Piccoli said in an email.
Under the current program, students do not know the amount of financial allotted to them until the second semester of their senior year. The new legislation would let students find out the level of aid they qualified for during their junior year before they applied to college.
“Students will be able to get a sense earlier of what financial aid will be available to them if they decide to go to college,” Bennet said.
Scott-Clayton said the legislation is more than just a headache that needs to be resolved.
“The form is a mess, and it’s annoying to fill out. But it’s more than annoying. It’s a barrier to access and success for students,” Scott-Clayton said.
The senators said they looked forward to feedback on the legislation.
mbowerman@durangoherald.com.
Mary Bowerman is a graduate student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Durango Herald.
