Could it really happen? According to a recent article in Inside Higher Ed news, an easier version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is in the works. The article reveals that U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings is unveiling a plan to simplify the process by which students apply for federal aid.
Under her proposal, the FAFSA would be cut from 102 questions to 27, and students would find out before their senior year of high school how much federal financial aid they would qualify for.
Seems to us this would be a great help in combination with existing tools, such as the FAFSA4caster. What are your thoughts on Secretary Spellings’ proposal? Would a simplified FAFSA help more students and their families?
In theory, Secretary Spellings’ proposal would help students like myself understand the financial aid process better and also help us predict how much aid we will be receiving faster. Also, by simplifying the FAFSA process my family could better understand how to budget over the years that I will be in school helping reduce financial stress as the years go on.
How do you think the recent Presidential elections with Obama in office will affect Secretary Spellings’ proposal and other forms of financial aid for students?
President-elect Barack Obama has stated that the financial aid process needs to be simplified. Simplification is very much a bi-partisan priority in Congress and so its momentum should not diminish despite a change in party at the presidential level.
How simplification will ultimately be achieved is still to be determined; however, his website points to an even simpler federal process than Spellings (check off on the income tax form). There is still a great deal of discussion taking place to assess how changes at the federal level might affect the aid process at the state and/or institutional level.
Obama on Higher Ed
(http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/11/05/obama)
Obama position on education
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/education/