New Law May Simplify College Financial Aid Form

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:55:00 GMT

Students and parents could spend less time filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid under a new provision of The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, according to an article in The Austin American-Statesman, (“New Law to Trim College Financial Aid Form,” August 2, 2008). The legislation was approved by Congress last week but has yet to be signed into law by the president.

Currently, in order to qualify for federal financial aid, families are required to complete the lengthy 11-page FAFSA separately from their yearly tax forms even though the 100-question federal financial aid form is based on tax information families are required to report to the Internal Revenue Service each year. The proposed legislation would allow the IRS to share these figures with the Department of Education, eliminating the need for families to report the information twice.

Requiring the agencies to share data could eliminate the need for as many as 31 questions from the FAFSA, according to a 2007 study by the Institute for College Access and Success.

The current FAFSA, which is used by federal and state governments and most colleges to determine eligibility for financial aid, is so cumbersome to fill out that it represents a roadblock for many students who otherwise might be college bound, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported last year, (“Congress and the Education Department Move to Simplify the Student-Aid Process,” March 30, 2007).

At that time, Rep. George Miller, who is the chief sponsor of the U.S House of Representative’s version of the bill to simplify the FAFSA, told the Chronicle the FAFSA needed to be changed because “It’s long and complicated. It’s over 100 questions. We now see the situation that the form itself can impact the decision about whether students go to college.”

Legislators have not laid out a specific time frame for when the shortened FAFSA would be introduced, leaving the agencies involved to decide when to implement the new FAFSA and the other proposed revisions to the financial aid process:

A simplified process for re-applying for financial aid
Clearer explanations regarding student borrowing options
Requirements that schools and lenders adopt new codes of conduct
Increased transparency and disclosures regarding federal student loan programs

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House Stalls Spending Bill That Would Boost Pell Grants, Biomedical Research

Student Loan Girl — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:31:00 GMT

A proposed spending bill that would raise Pell Grant award amounts and increase funding for the National Institutes of Health was delayed indefinitely Thursday after Democrats and Republicans began squabbling over the bill’s provisions, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Spending Bill for Student Aid And NIH Hits Partisan Roadblock in House,” June 26, 2008).

Republicans want to strip out the financial aid and biomedical research funding provisions of the proposed legislation — which the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee had been poised to approve for the 2009 fiscal year — and replace them with unrelated provisions, including one authorizing an expansion of oil drilling in the United States, the Chronicle reports.

The move incensed the Committee’s chairman Rep. David Obey, D-Wisc., who called it “a political stunt,” the kind that explains why Americans “despise” Congress. Democrats then moved to adjourn the session.

The breakdown came a week after the Appropriations subcommittee had approved the current form of the spending bill, which would raise the maximum Pell Grant award to $4,900 and increase the NIH budget by $1.2-billion.

If the full House Appropriations Committee resumes consideration of the bill and approves it, the bill would go before the full House of Representatives for a vote.

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Student Loan Blog : U.S House of Representatives

New Law May Simplify College Financial Aid Form

House Stalls Spending Bill That Would Boost Pell Grants, Biomedical Research