Sun Editorial:

A collegiate headache

Obama administration works to ease the paperwork, problems in getting financial aid

Monday, July 6, 2009 | 2:07 a.m.

Every year 16 million students and their families fill out the most daunting of college applications — the one for financial aid.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid — Fafsa — is notorious for its complexity and its length. It requires students to answer as many as 153 questions about themselves, their families and their finances.

The New York Times recently reported that federal officials are concerned the form is scaring off applicants. They estimate 1.5 million people who are eligible for federal Pell Grants don’t apply. Anyone who has seen the application understands what a headache it is. A small industry of paid consultants helps students and their parents navigate the application process.

The Obama administration wants to simplify things. Next year about 20 percent of the questions will be eliminated. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the changes “are designed to help increase college enrollment among low-income and middle-income students by making it easier to apply for financial aid.”

Duncan has plans to update the online application. With a click, a student’s family can import information it reported to the Internal Revenue Service, saving the time and labor of digging out the forms and typing them in.

The education secretary is also asking Congress for help. He needs the authority to remove several questions that seek financial information the IRS does not require.

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, has expressed initial support for Duncan’s “common-sense proposals.”

The Obama administration is taking a good first step, and we hope Congress follows through. The government should streamline the form and remove an obstacle that can stand between a student and a college education.

Discussion: 7 comments so far…

By annienonymouse

7/6/09 at 7:07 a.m.

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Actually it wasn't all that bad, the application itself.

What was a pain was going back and forth with the school.
By uddeboda

7/6/09 at 9:48 a.m.

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Get the healthcare system sorted out, then tackle this problem. College and university education without costing a dime. Completely without cost and even a very nice monthly allowance to help with lodgings and food. Utopia, no, thats how it works in Sweden, even for foreign EU students wishing to study further
By neiman1

7/6/09 at 11:12 a.m.

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WoW, free money requires 153 questions. That's way too tough for people that want a college degree.
By DouglasDemocrat

7/6/09 at 1:56 p.m.

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"153 questions. That's way too tough for people that want a college degree."

Like to see you fill it out - it's worse than doing a 1040 long form.
By Patrick_R_Gibbons

7/6/09 at 3:55 p.m.

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"Get the healthcare system sorted out, then tackle this problem. College and university education without costing a dime. Completely without cost and even a very nice monthly allowance to help with lodgings and food. Utopia, no, thats how it works in Sweden, even for foreign EU students wishing to study further"

1) Beware any time someone suggests there system is a utopia - especially someone who claims to live in Europe and not know much about it (yes I'm talking about you udde who didn't even know Sweden had a public education voucher program).

2) Everything has a cost. Period. There aint no such thing as a free lunch, yet that is what Udde wants us to believe.
By WillieTanner

7/6/09 at 8:34 p.m.

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Patrick_R_Gibbons: Some people are willing to pay higher taxes for things, (education), that will keep their country strong. Defense spending is fun though. The thought of being able to kill people 6 times over is comforting too.
Enjoy watching the economies of China, India, and Russia pass you by. Unemployment in most European countries can go to 10% and people still have healthcare, can get an education, have unemployment benefits. In the U.S. you can be employed with no health insurance and not much chance for further education when you do get laid off. GREED IS GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!! New Gordon Gekko movie due out soon!
By uddeboda

7/6/09 at 11:33 p.m.

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Patrick

Of course there is nothing like a freelunch. We Europeans have high taxation totally, but if you take the time yourself to count up your own taxes, you will find that "some" states are not all that far behind us Europeans, then you have your famous mediocre healthcare systems, where the only safe way is to buy healthcare insurance, and even then you are not sure you get the treatment when its needed, whereas we are sure of getting it, without having to pay $6 or 8 or 10 thousand a year, then there is the American college and university education system, whereby, if you are not lucky to get a scholarship, your parents need to take out expensive loans, if they can.