What is the Deal with the FAFSA?
I'm not there yet and based on the information and news over the last several weeks, I'm glad I'm not. I hope they get it fixed in the next 8 years.
You might have seen the news about the new form for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, that has attempted to be released by the Department of Education. To say that it has been an utter disaster is an understatement. Not only has it recalculated people's ability to pay for college in ways that seems to be completely dismissive of reality, but they also can’t even get it rolled out correctly so that colleges and families can figure out how to start college starting in the fall of 2024.
All of this started with a law passed by Congress asking for a simplicity measure regarding FAFSA. In doing so, which was required by the passage of the law, the Department of Education has screwed this up from the beginning. Some of the issues that have been brought up but yet are still not addressed, include the following:
1. Somehow, someone got the bright idea that if a family member, particularly a parent, has a business, that's additive to the amount of money that that parent can pay for college, in support of the child. One small problem…that is not how business works. If you're a family farmer with $5,000,000 worth of irritable farmland, it's not like you can cash in that money that is connected to the land to help pay for school. Or you’re small business owner with inventory, like hardware, you cannot just cash in that doorknob to help your son or daughter go to school. And how do you set the “value” of a small business when there are no assets at all?
2. The Department of Education removed any thought process about discounting costs when it comes to having siblings in college at the same time. Somehow, they believe that having two kids in school at the same time isn't as financially challenging as having one child in college.
3. They've not hit one deadline for the sharing of their calculations with either the universities or families. We are literally almost to the 1st of April, and students and colleges have no idea about what financial aid projections, which is the primary responsibility of FAFSA, that can be expected. The colleges are making guesses as to how much financial aid might be available, which could be incredibly financially detrimental. And families are making college decisions in the blind as to what they might get.
I am not against improvement. I'm not even against changing some of the issues regarding how the government looks at financial aid. But they're pure incompetence in this process and decisions begs the question of whether or not the people in charge are actually capable of doing this correctly. The ramifications of these decisions, and delays, could be catastrophic to colleges and universities. And while richer colleges and more affluent families won't be affected, both the entities and the families on the other end of the spectrums could be affected in ways that can hurt both the institutions and the families for generations to come.
Despite the attempt to simplify the process, issues such as counting family businesses as assets and neglecting the financial burden of having multiple siblings in college simultaneously have further complicated matters, potentially leading to catastrophic consequences for colleges and families reliant on financial aid.
