President Joe Biden’s botched rollout of a revamped financial aid form reveals a stunning lack of managerial competence. It has left colleges unable to tell millions of students how much they’ll have to pay, causing some to delay enrolling and others to drop the idea altogether. This easily avoidable failure threatens to deprive low-income Americans of a college education. And Biden, the country’s chief executive, needs to hold to account the officials who are directly responsible.

The mess stems from the congressionally mandated overhaul of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, a form used to determine eligibility for government grants and loans. Once verified by the Education Department, student records are shared with colleges, which then inform students of their tuition costs based on the financial assistance they can expect. In past years, the FAFSA form — with more than 100 questions demanding more data than a tax return — discouraged many low-income students from completing the application, denying them thousands in grant money. In December 2020, Congress told the department to design something simpler.

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Government Incompetence Is Keeping Kids Out of College

18 0
09.04.2024

President Joe Biden’s botched rollout of a revamped financial aid form reveals a stunning lack of managerial competence. It has left colleges unable to tell millions of students how much they’ll have to pay, causing some to delay enrolling and others to drop the idea altogether. This........

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