Congressman Tim Walberg is among the supporters of an effort to force the U.S. Department of Education to follow a stricter deadline when making FAFSA applications available to prospective college students.
Walberg tells us the department this year made some changes to the FAFSA — or Free Application for Federal Student Aid — which resulted in lengthy delays. How did that happen?
“Incompetence and lack of attention from the Department of Education, and specifically Secretary Cardona,” Walberg said. “We gave them the resources, the money, and the provisions for the initial delay, but then we reestablished — and we did that again just recently — reestablished a solid October 1 date for FAFSA application to be complete. Because they didn’t complete it, we had young people aspiring to go to college who weren’t able to go.”
Walberg says the FAFSA delays not only hurt students, but also hurt colleges — especially smaller colleges — because they didn’t get the number of students they’d been expecting.
Legislation requiring the Department of Education to make FAFSA applications available no later than October 1 was approved in the House this month. The FAFSA Deadline Act had bipartisan support with the final House vote being 381 to 1.
