Financial aid forms debuted in December 2023. More than a year later than promised. This includes technical errors that will make it impossible for some families to complete their applications. The Ministry of Education has been overwhelmed with applications, and universities are unable to issue scholarships due to delays in processing applications by authorities. Federal watchdog agencies have opened two investigations, and lawmakers are furious.
Congressional Republicans have accused the Biden administration of being so preoccupied with canceling student loans that it failed to implement the new FAFSA, a critical step for students to access grants, scholarships and loans.On the other hand, the administration criticized the lawmakers For setting unrealistic deadlines and denying requests for more resources. Higher education experts say both claims are valid and have plenty of room for condemnation.
“Both administrations, Congress and contractors all played a role in the confusion,” said Bryce McKibben, who helped author the FAFSA Simplification Act of 2020 while working for Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). ” he said. “We drafted an innovative but imperfect law that should have been given more time and funding to implement.”
across two regimes
Although the Biden administration did the heavy lifting for the new FAFSA, the project began to take shape during the Trump administration.
Streamlining the FAFSA was a top priority for Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). The now-retired politician introduced the law in 2018, 108 question form.The application has long been derided as too complex and labor-intensive for families., Request detailed tax information.
To support Alexander's efforts, the Department of Education's Office of Federal Student Aid created a mobile app in 2018. eventually Arthur Wayne Johnson, who led the agency at the time and is now running for Congress, said it would pivot to a shortened FAFSA.
In a letter sent to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Thursday, Johnson wrote that the Secretary of Education has created a short form containing calculations to provide more free aid to students in 2018, and that it will become part of the new FAFSA. He argued that it may have functioned as a framework. It was later approved by Congress.
“The cloud-based technology and systems behind this fully functional mobile app for the FAFSA were turned over to the Biden administration and wiped out with malicious negligence,” Johnson said.
Officials at the Office of Federal Student Aid and Congressional staff acknowledged the existence of the shortened form, but said it had little practical use because it was not meaningfully consistent with the law Congress passed in December 2020. There was also. The Biden administration retired the app in 2022. Usage was low, and the short form was effectively obsolete.
The Department of Education said it had evaluated and decided on options, including the use of a shortened format. that Significant system changes were required to revamp the Financial Aid Form.
2020 The law, called the FAFSA Simplification Act, reduced the number of questions from 108 to 36 and increased the amount of income protected. Formula used to determine eligibility for assistance. This change expanded access to Pell Grants, a form of aid for undergraduate students with special financial needs.
Parliament has directed the Department of Education to complete all work by October 2022. Trump administration officials assured lawmakers that the deadline could be met, despite warnings from Student Services officials that it would be impossible to meet it. Officials not authorized to speak publicly.
Lawmakers only expected the Education Department to redesign the application and update the underlying formulas, not replace the entire processing system, negotiators said.
“On the other hand, if you want a program that runs better and is more efficient, you need to update your system. Now, did you need that update to improve your FAFSA? No.” said one congressional aide involved, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
However, the Ministry of Education said: The old system used an outdated programming language and would have hindered implementation of the new FAFSA. In 2019, the Government Accountability Office determined that the old The system was one of the 10 federal systems most in need of modernization.
When the Biden administration took office in 2021, former student support staffers said updating the FAFSA was treated as a purely technocratic undertaking that civil servants could manage on their own. Meanwhile, the department's senior leaders focused on other priorities, including a new set of regulations and cleaning up a poorly run student loan forgiveness program.
Officials said they tried to convince senior officials that they needed more time to complete the technology upgrades needed to complete the new financial aid application. The Office of Student Affairs wanted to add two more years. Department officials urged Congress to do so.
Lawmakers first learned the department was remodeling the entire building and granted the request in June 2021. FAFSA system McKibben, currently senior director of policy and advocacy at Temple University's Hope Center, said of infrastructure:
To build the new processing system, the Department of Education tapped General Dynamics Information Technology, Accenture Federation Services, Peraton Enterprise Solutions, and Jazz Solutions. Student support staff said he found it sometimes difficult to get political leaders to pay attention when vendors pointed out problems with system development or missed deadlines.
In August 2022, President Biden announced a plan to forgive up to $20,000 per recipient of federal student loans. Last fall, the White House put pressure on the Office of Student Affairs to perfect the process, according to three people familiar with the matter. That meant pulling several people away from other projects, including the new FAFSA.
The Department of Education pushed back against claims that student debt relief contributed to FAFSA delays, saying it played no role. The ministry said significant progress was made on funding projects in the summer and fall of 2022, including the release of guidelines to prepare students for changes to the need-based grant aid formula.
But Rep. Virginia Foxx, RN.C., chair of the House Education Committee, said the focus on debt relief is problematic. “The FAFSA collapsed because the Biden administration was so focused on promoting free college that it forgot about the efforts to help students and families.” she said.
Some higher education advocates argue that Congressional Republicans created higher education. federal student aid Office is at a disadvantage by refusing to provide additional funding for FAFSA completion in 2022 update.
“The legislators and the embezzlers are putting them in a bad position,” said Will del Pilar, senior vice president of the advocacy group Education Trust. “Departments were scrambling trying to implement all of this additional effort without additional resources.”
Congressional staffers said Republicans agreed to increase the executive branch's budget, but with the condition that not a penny could be spent on Biden's debt relief program. Democrats and the White House balked at the proposal, accusing Republicans of reneging on a promise not to include provisions not included in previous budget proposals.
Mr. Fox refuted the claim that a lack of funds caused the FAFSA problems. Poor management is to blame for the failed rollout, she argues.
In March 2023, the Department of Education, still struggling to upgrade the FAFSA, announced that the form would not debut until December, two months later than the traditional October 1 opening for aid applications.a General Dynamics Information Technology continues to have problems, and department officials have asked for more engineers and project managers to get the project back on track, according to people familiar with the project.
A GDIT spokesperson declined to comment, referring questions to the Department of Education.
In early 2023, the department turned to the US Digital Service, which was created after the disastrous rollout of Healthcare.gov, to help the agency with technology projects. The technical agency assisted with the FAFSA schedule and supervised the project's contractors, the department said.
A June GAO report raised concerns that the Department of Education was on schedule and not accounting for more than $336 million in renovation costs. To help meet the December goal, records show the department hired Jazz Solutions to integrate new systems, but experts say that work was completed long ago. He said he was supposed to be there.
As the release date approaches, lawmakers, universities and other stakeholders claim the Education Department has kept it secret. Despite regularly briefing Congress on the FAFSA, congressional aides say the agency has not made clear what issues it is working on. These aides said college access and financial aid organizations, not department officials, told lawmakers that the agency was not updating a key income formula on the FAFSA. The department announced in January, a month after the Washington Post reported on the issue, that it would update its formula.
Cardona attended a conference hosted by financial aid and admissions groups in February as colleges grew concerned about delays in receiving FAFSA data and the potential impact on admissions. He assured schools that the department will do everything it can to support them through this difficult FAFSA cycle.
“I know this is a stressful time,” Cardona told a room of financial aid workers last month. “But a better FAFSA will be worth it.”
Still, mistakes and delays, including last-minute communication of issues, have caused colleges to lose confidence in their departments, said Justin Drager, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
He said his biggest goal right now is to get students the financial aid packages they need to be considered for offers. Many universities are postponing deadlines for deposits and other commitments to give students time to make decisions.
“At some point, there will be a time to take responsibility and learn from all of this. For now, our goal is to remain committed to getting this across the finish line for our students,” Draeger said. Told. “However, I hope that when the day comes for accountability, it will not be found that the decision was made to save face or that public relations was prioritized over transparency and partnership with stakeholders and students. Masu.”
