Nearly 15,000 students in Washington will be newly eligible to receive federal financial aid money in 2024 under a plan that also expands the federal Pell Grant fund and makes it easier to apply for aid, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray said this month during a virtual news conference.
Financial assistance is awarded on a sliding scale based on family income. Unlike loans, grants do not have to be repaid.
It’s unclear how much of an increase this will represent because the U.S. Department of Education was unable to determine how many Washington students will receive Pell Grants in 2022, according to Murray’s office. In 2017-18 — the last year for which published statistics are available — 122,418 Washingtonians received Pell grants totaling $484 million.
Additionally, about 24,000 students in Washington will be eligible for the maximum Pell Grant amount of $7,395 in 2024 as a result of the changes. The maximum award this year is $6,895.
Murray, who has been working to rewrite the Financial Aid Form (FAFSA), the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, said the changes can be summed up as “less paperwork, more help.” As a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Murray and former Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., worked to rewrite the model over a number of years.
Washington has long lagged behind the nation in completing the FAFSA. For the high school class of 2023, only about 45% of Washington students have completed paperwork, ranking it 47th among the 50 states. Nationally, about 59% of the Class of 2023 completed the form.
“This is a big red flag for our student aid system,” Murray said. “It’s not just that our Federal Financial Aid Aid (FAFSA) process works poorly, it’s practically missing the point. The FAFSA should be a tool that expands access to higher education, not a barrier that prevents qualified students from getting The financial aid they need to go to college.
Neither Murray nor Becky Thompson, director of student financial aid for the Washington Student Achievement Council, had an explanation for why Washington was so far behind. Murray said the complexity of the model has frustrated many families, and Thompson said the state’s low rate of students going to college directly after high school could be a factor. In recent years, she said, the state has begun some new strategies to try to improve FAFSA completion rates.
The FAFSA typically opens to applicants on October 1st. The rewrite resulted in significant delays; According to the US Department of Education, the form will be published by December 31. That’s a concern for many college aid counselors, who say they’ll rush to give students money.
“I’ve been pushing the administration as hard as I can to get this out as quickly as possible,” Murray said.
Although the form has not yet been published, families who do not already have a Student Aid ID can still begin the process by applying for one at Studentaid.gov/fsa-id/create-account/launch. It usually takes several days to obtain an ID card. Families who already have an ID card do not need to apply for a new ID card.
The old form had about 100 questions and required parents to extract their tax returns and enter information manually. With the new form, all of this information is automatically filled out once applicants agree to have the IRS release the information. The number of questions on the form varies depending on the applicant and what background data is already available, but for some, it will be fewer than 20 questions and take about 10 minutes to complete, Thompson said.
Applicants who don’t have a tax return on file — for example, if their income is too little to require a tax return — will still be able to apply, Thompson said. An IRS consent question will also be used to verify that the student or parent has not filed a return.
Students who complete a financial aid application are 84% more likely to enroll in post-secondary education, and the rate is even higher for students from low-income families, Thompson said.
“Completing the FAFSA has been a very high hurdle for too many families for too long,” Thompson said. “The new, simplified FAFSA represents a real opportunity. Not only is it a simplified form, it will mean more access to more financial aid for more students.
In an effort to make higher education more accessible to students in Western Australia, the government has announced that more students will be eligible for university financial aid starting next year. This decision comes as a response to the increasing cost of tertiary education and the need to support students from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. By expanding eligibility for financial aid, the government aims to provide greater opportunities for students to pursue their academic aspirations without the burden of overwhelming financial stress. This move is expected to have a positive impact on the education sector and empower more students to achieve their academic and career goals.