FAFSA Undergoes Reform
The U.S. Department of Education estimates approximately 1.5 million students that qualify for Pell Grants fail to receive their financial aid due the length and complication of the FAFSA. The FAFSA is considered so daunting by applicants, in fact, that many hire a professional to fill them out, just like their tax forms!
Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced recently that the U.S. Department of Education intends on rectifying this issue by decreasing the FAFSA application’s length. The decrease is considerable; the FAFSA currently stretches thirty pages, but after the reduction, will only span ten pages.
This is exciting news for future 2010-2011 school year students. The changes will not go into effect in time for this Fall Semester (if you are attending classes this fall, your FAFSA should have been filled out months ago!), but they are in the near future.
This reduction does not mean the government is reducing the amount of information necessary for the FAFSA; rather, the Internal Revenue Service is compiling a means to export tax information online so that it does not have to be filled out manually.
This change has come at the perfect time. Due to the recession, the amount of students applying for the FAFSA has increased by 12 percent.
Duncan’s statement in regards to the change was: “The FAFSA improvements will reduce the burden on the 16 million students and families who apply for federal financial aid every year, and are designed to help increase college enrollment among low-income and middle-income students.”"
