As college-bound students and their parents know, locking down a financial aid package is critical. The non-elite set doesn’t have money to burn, and higher-education costs require saving, borrowing and trying to get as much help as possible.

You would think the Biden Administration, which touts itself as an ally of the working class, would do everything in its power to make sure American families can access the tools they need to tap into monetary help for college.

But no. The new Free Application for Federal Student Aid tripped right out of the gate last winter with glitches, delays and technical errors for those trying to fill out the online form.

In March, Justin Draeger, president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, wrote in a statement: “At this stage in the game and after so many delays, every error adds up and will be felt acutely by every student who is counting on need-based financial aid to make their postsecondary dreams a reality.”

Now it seems the FAFSA fiasco is ready for another round.

The Department of Education announced that FAFSA forms for the next school year would open up only to select individuals starting Oct. 1, The Hill reported. The forms will go through a phased rollout with only some getting selected to process their applications early, so the department can identify the bugs in the system.

Bugs that they’ve had months to work out.

The new deadline for the applications to be available to everyone is on Dec. 1, two months after the typical start date but earlier than last year’s rocky release.

“I think it’s a difficult tradeoff between functionality and timeliness, and that’s a question that NCAN (the National Collegiate Attainment Network) has been discussing with our members and discussing internally and trying to sort through,” said Catherine Brown, senior director of policy and advocacy at NCAN.

Why would there be a tradeoff between functionality and timeliness? And why should American taxpayers have to put up with this?

“I will say there definitely is not 100 percent trust from the financial aid community, because it really was — the 2024-2025 year — was really traumatic, and there has definitely been a breakdown in trust,” said Karen McCarthy, vice president of public policy and federal relations for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

The way to restore trust is to get things up and working again, but that’s not how they do things in D.C.

President Biden has had a field day tossing around billions of dollars to forgive student loan debt, though the Supreme Court is set to have the last word on the legality of his plans.

Biden’s done this ostensibly because he cares about American students being able to attend college without being crippled financially and to score points with younger voters.

But if Biden really has the needs of college-bound students and their families as a priority, he’d get the Department of Education to pull up its socks and fix the FAFSA.  Biden and Co. stepped up to to get baby formula back on store shelves during the 2022 shortage, it can put the heat on an executive branch of its administration to make applying for financial aid the efficient, error-free process taxpayers deserve.