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As part of a plan to help more people go to college, the Obama administration has announced that it will simplify an annual ritual known to strike dread into students' and parents' hearts: the FAFSA.
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid is the form through which Uncle Sam decides who deserves grants and loans, and many states and schools use it in their own financial aid programs.
But at 153 questions, it is so daunting that millions of families give up before they finish it, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Wednesday at the White House, where he and IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman outlined a plan to tame a “nightmare” form and put more low- and middle-income students in college.
Even though Mike Dempsey has filled out the FAFSA for four children and works as a guidance counselor at Omaha Gross High School, he still finds the form formidable.
“I hope they make it as easy as possible,” he said. “First-time parents are real apprehensive when they first get that form. It's a long, detailed form.”
Simplification will be pursued in three ways, said the federal officials:
Ÿ Use technology better. The Web site that 98 percent of students now use to fill out the FAFSA will reduce irrelevant questions by taking greater advantage of interactivity, instead of just reproducing the paper form. A student who answers that he is at least 24 or married, for instance, would not even see 11 other questions about his parents' financial status.
Ÿ Ask lawmakers to back off. Congress, which has increased the FAFSA's size over the past 17 years, will be asked to eliminate some questions. For instance, dozens of the questions students and their parents are now asked about their income and assets go beyond what the IRS seeks on tax forms, yet provide little useful data in judging aid-worthiness.
Ÿ Use data already in hand. More than 90 percent of FAFSA filers are giving the government information it already has on income tax forms.
But the college-bound may want to postpone their celebrations.
“That'll be about the one-millionth time” simplification has been tried, said Randy Sell, director of financial aid at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Yet past attempts achieved little, despite “a whole lot of people with good intentions.”
Mostly the FAFSA has grown, sometimes at Congress' order — a question about past drug convictions, for example — sometimes at the request of states seeking more student data, Sell said.
Most people — especially first-timers — agree that it's a complicated form, he said, but judging who is most eligible for student aid is necessarily a detailed process. Most applicants, he said, recognize that “if you want dollars out of this federal aid system, you've got to do the work.”
Many Nebraska students take advantage of an unusual, free source of help: EducationQuest, a foundation-supported college preparation service with offices in Omaha, Lincoln and Kearney.
Dempsey, the Omaha parent, said he uses EducationQuest to make sure he's done the FAFSA just right each time. With the help, he said, the task takes no more than 45 minutes and gives him an understanding of what the calculations mean for his students' potential aid.
EducationQuest's services and advice won't change even if the FAFSA does, said Joan Jurek, director of its Omaha office. “We do more than just filling out the form for the family,” she said. “We're going to be educating them just as we always have.”
The proposed FAFSA changes arrive as demand for aid is rising. Last year, after the recession had begun, applications rose by 12 percent to more than 16 million, according to the Education Department. Detailed estimates are not yet available for last year, but of 2007's full-time college undergraduates, 58 percent applied for aid and 47 percent received it.
Still, many who are eligible do not apply. The American Council on Education, in a 2004 report, estimated that 1.5 million students probably would have been awarded Pell Grants, one of the main forms of financial aid, had they applied.
The new FAFSA probably will be part of a broader student-aid bill whose centerpiece is the Obama administration's controversial plan to end government-subsidized college loans through private banks in favor of direct federal aid to students.
This report includes material from the Associated Press.
Contact the writer:
444-1037, michaela.saunders@owh.com
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