The financial aid application process could become shorter and easier to complete.
During his first official White House press corps briefing, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan outlined steps the Obama administration is taking to streamline the process of filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid for its nearly 16 million annual applicants.
In May, the U.S. Department of Education began providing instant estimates on Pell Grant and student loan eligibility, information which used to take days or weeks depending on the application method. This summer, the online application is being updated to reduce the length of the process by more than half.
The administration said it will introduce legislation seeking statutory authority from Congress to eliminate financial information from the aid calculation formula that is not available from the IRS, according to a White House press release. If such legislation passes as proposed, it would remove 26 questions from the FAFSA that the administration said have little impact on aid awards and can be difficult to complete.
Students using the online application will also have immediate access to relevant tax information from the IRS starting in January of 2010.
The modifications to FAFSA are in addition to the other higher education initiatives that have already been proposed or enacted by the Obama administration to make financial aid more accessible to college students.
The Recovery Act included a clause increasing the maximum Pell Grants award by $500 to $5,350 for this upcoming school year. It also provided for a $2,500 tax credit for four years of tuition.
The administration’s 2010 budget also proposes that the Perkins Loan Program be available to an additional 2,600 schools, which is estimated to help approximately 2.7 million more students obtain federal loans, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The current 5 percent interest rate will be held constant.