High school seniors are facing unprecedented delays in finding out how much financial aid they will be provided to pay for college, thanks to multiple glitches in a new federal form that Republicans say were exacerbated by President Biden’s massive loan forgiveness program.
The Education Department launched a revised Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA that was aimed at simplifying the process.
But the December rollout, two months later than usual for FAFSA applicants, was riddled with problems. And it failed to include a critical tool to account for inflation.
As a result, many students are now forced to delay decisions about where they will attend college as they await FAFSA fixes by the Education Department that are needed to enable colleges to calculate how much aid they’ll receive.
Education Department officials blame the delays and glitches in part on inadequate funding to administer the program and say they are taking steps to speed up the processing.
But House and Senate Republican lawmakers point to poor management and Mr. Biden’s loan forgiveness plan, which they say has diverted Education Department staff away from implementing the critical FAFSA reforms that were mandated in bipartisan legislation enacted in 2021.
“In the last three years, the Biden administration’s Department of Education has put considerable time and resources to prioritize their student loan schemes,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the top Republican on the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee. “But they’ve been unable to fulfill their basic responsibilities mandated by Congress and essential to American families.”
Mr. Cassidy announced that the Government Accountability Office has launched an investigation into the Department of Education’s “incompetent mishandling” of the FAFSA rollout.
Across the Capitol, House lawmakers have initiated a probe into how much time and money the Education Department diverted to Mr. Biden’s student-loan relief efforts at the expense of administering the critical FAFSA program.
“The Department had plenty of time to prepare for the FAFSA rollout,” said House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, North Carolina Republican. “Instead, it zealously and recklessly pursued an illegal student loan scheme. The Department’s actions have had real consequences. Students are hurting—especially low-income students who are most dependent on federal aid.”
Mr. Biden has made student loan forgiveness a top priority as he gears up his campaign for a second term amid numbers showing support for him among young voters has shrunk dramatically since 2020.
Last week, the Biden administration emailed more than 150,000 borrowers to inform them his administration has canceled their student loan debt under an expansion of the income-driven repayment program known as SAVE, which the Education Department administers.
The Education Department was tasked with creating the program and launching a “nationwide outreach campaign to support borrowers by ensuring they take full advantage of the benefits provided by the SAVE plan in addition to the existing resources and debt forgiveness programs available from the Department.”
So far, the Education Department has helped 4 million borrowers escape $140 million in student loan debt, despite staunch opposition from Republicans and a Supreme Court ruling last summer that struck down Mr. Biden’s broader effort to cancel student debt.
The department, meanwhile, has left aspiring college students who need financial aid in the lurch, delaying new applicant information to colleges and universities by at least a month — until mid-March at the earliest.
For prospective students, it means they may not receive financial aid offers until sometime in May instead of early April.
“This problematic rollout is causing more than just an administrative headache. For students—and even schools themselves—the ripple effect could be catastrophic,” National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators President Justin Draeger and American Council on Education President Ted Mitchell said in a joint statement.
Stressed-out parents and students have been flummoxed by error messages and an inability to access their online FAFSA forms as the Education Department holds all the applications in limbo while it makes corrections to the program.
Department officials made some quick fixes, including a temporary workaround to allow illegal immigrants without Social Security numbers to apply for financial aid for their U.S.-born children.
Immigrant rights advocates bemoaned the bungle but said the department’s workaround heartened them.
“Parents’ legal status should not affect the receipt of financial aid packages for eligible students,” said Rep. Nanette Barragan, California Democrat and chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “Tens of thousands of U.S. citizen students and families, many of them Latino, have been put at risk of not meeting college deadlines for financial aid determinations because of a glitch in the new FAFSA form.”
But parents and students have been largely left in the dark about when colleges will send their FAFSA information so they can find out how much aid they’ll receive and subsequently finalize a college choice.
“We are at the mercy of the Department of Education and they are not sharing this additional information with families,” one frustrated parent lamented on a FAFSA Facebook message group.
Earlier this month, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the department is speeding up the FAFSA application process by reducing verification requirements and suspending routine program reviews to confirm colleges meet the requirements for financial aid eligibility.
“We are determined to drive a constant drumbeat of action to fulfill the transformational potential of the Better FAFSA,” Mr. Cardona said.
The department announced that as of February, nearly 4 million FAFSA forms have been successfully submitted.
Ms. Foxx was not impressed by the applicant numbers, pointing out that 18 million students typically fill out the FAFSA form each year.
“That’s 20% — a failing grade in any classroom,” said Ms. Foxx, a former college professor.
She called the department’s implementation of the program “outrageously incompetent” and pledged to “hold the department accountable.”
In a letter to Mr. Cardona, Ms. Foxx requested information about the reallocation of salaries, expenses, and other funding to administer Mr. Biden’s student loan cancellation initiatives. She’s also seeking documents and communications between Education Department staff related to the botched FAFSA rollout and the decision to move the deadline for sending information to colleges from January to the first half of March.
“It seems the Department’s failed FAFSA implementation is at least in part due to the time and attention it gave to judicially unsanctioned and politically expedient cancellation plans,” she wrote to Mr. Cardona. “The net result is students struggling to plan their postsecondary education because of the delays and related problems.”
— Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.