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Fafsa Follies: To Gain a Student, Eliminate a Form – The New York Times
Time to phase out the FAFSA with a simple solution to increase college attendance that will lead to graduation. Use IRS information avoid duplication and complexity simplify simplify.
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Students must fight through thickets of paperwork and endure long delays to obtain definitive information about the aid for which they qualify. Many give up before they learn that college is affordable.
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cut the lengthy federal aid application, now longer than the typical 1040 Internal Revenue Service form, to just two questions.
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The widely despised form known as the Fafsa (which stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid) is unnecessary
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tax filers could just check a box on the 1040 to learn immediately about eligibility for federal grants, loans and tax credits.
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But a large body of evidence from economics and psychology shows that even minor bureaucratic hurdles can keep people from making smart investments in their futures.
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Research shows that in these situations people deviate systematically from rational behavior, often to their own detriment.
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The streamlined process increased the share of low-income young people who attended college for two years by eight percentage points (to 36 percent from 28 percent).
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Eliminating the Fafsa and relying on tax data to calculate aid eligibility is the clearest route to permanent simplification.
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Why do these high-income families qualify for aid by simply filing their taxes, while low-income families must fill out the Fafsa to qualify for a Pell Grant? We have created an aid system that is most complicated for the low-income families who are its target.
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We found that dozens of questions on the Fafsa contribute virtually nothing to the determination of grant aid.
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The Fafsa burdens families and prevents students from attending college, while doing little to target federal aid.
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