Dive Brief:
- In a column for The New York Times, University of Michigan education professor Susan Dynarski argues that existing IRS tax data should eliminate the need for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid entirely.
- Dynarski argues that simplifying the FAFSA won’t go far enough to encourage low-income students to fill out the form and find out that college is affordable, and Congress’ track record shows complexity is likely to creep back in.
- In her own research, Dynarski has found that dozens of FAFSA questions contribute “virtually nothing” in helping determine whether and how much students should get in grant aid.
Dive Insight:
The problem with getting rid of the FAFSA is that the federal government isn’t the only party using it to determine financial aid. Yes, the form gives students a clear picture of how much they will be expected to contribute toward their education. It is the determiner of Pell Grant eligibility. But it is also the form that thousands of colleges use to decide how much financial aid to offer prospective students.
If the FAFSA ceased to exist, a student applying to five different schools might have to fill out five separate financial aid questionnaires, complicating the process for individual students far more than the FAFSA, which, on average, takes students only 20 minutes to complete.