Years of bureaucratic failure have left millions of high school seniors and their families without access to financial aid for college this spring. Young people are deferring college plans, colleges are delaying acceptance decisions, and the low-income families most in need of government support for higher education are left behind because of the Biden Administration’s incompetence.
In 2019 and 2020, Congress passed, and President Trump signed into law updates to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The Biden Administration was responsible for implementing these changes – to make the form shorter and more accessible to all applicants. It is especially important the FAFSA website work because the federal government originates and services most loans in the United States.
The Administration was granted a one-year delay, but still did not have the new website in place for this year’s seniors to apply and get assurances about their ability to afford college. The botched rollout has reminded many of the similarly botched rollout of the Obamacare website in 2013.
The head of the federal government’s sprawling college financial aid program resigned suddenly last month in the wake of long-running failures to implement a new questionnaire and website for college applicants and their families.
The consequences of repeated failure to provide a working FAFSA may result in decreased interest in college or increased demands for “free college” as frustrations and disappointments grow.
