The FAFSA blunders continue

Mar 25, 2024

Miguel Cardona listens.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona's agency is still working through a backlog of millions of federal student aid applications. | Evan Vucci/AP

FAFSA, FAFSA, FAFSA — Roughly 200,000 of the 1.5 million federal student aid records sent to schools now need to be reprocessed by the Education Department.

— The mistake is the latest in a series of missteps the Education Department has made around the rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid. It also comes as higher education leaders say they are not confident that the agency will deliver the vital data they need to create financial aid packages without delays or errors.

— The Education Department on Friday said the issue that affected about 200,000 records has been resolved and shouldn’t affect any other student aid records moving forward. The department’s FAFSA processing system miscalculated the financial need of dependent students who reported assets, which created an inaccurate picture of how much aid those students might be eligible for. Still, education advocates and lawmakers are frustrated with the missteps this late in the admissions cycle.

— “This is another unforced error that will likely cause more processing delays for students,” Justin Draeger, the president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said in a statement Friday. “Schools will work in good faith with our federal colleagues to get information to students as soon as possible, but let’s not make any mistake — schools can only work with valid and correct data that is provided to them from the U.S. Department of Education.”

— Before the latest blunder, the American Council on Education, an advocacy group that represents many of the nation’s colleges, surveyed its members. The survey highlighted their uncertainty about the department’s ability to deliver what they need to start sending out financial aid packages to students.

“They had a general uncertainty and lack of confidence in the department's ability to provide them with the most accurate, updated information in a timely manner,” said Emmanual Guillory, ACE senior director of government relations. “We had members express a lack of confidence in the whole process in general, and finding issues with the department's management of the rollout and potential errors in [Institutional Student Information Records].”

— The timeline is unclear for when students can expect their financial aid packages. Many institutions are aiming for mid-April, but financial aid administrators are dealing with long wait times to get help from the department and attempting to do the work that usually takes months in just a matter of weeks. The Education Department has processed about 1.5 million of the roughly 6 million backlogged FAFSAs, which means colleges still don’t have everything they need.

— At the end of the day, colleges are having to answer to families who are just as stressed about the FAFSA delays. “We all have a role to play and a responsibility to our prospective and current students, and to the families of those students,” Guillory said. “So when we are pointing the fingers at one another, we're not prioritizing students in the way that we should.”

IT’S MONDAY, MARCH 25. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. WHAT SHOULD WE BE LOOKING OUT FOR THIS WEEK? Drop me a line at bquilantan@politico.com. Send tips to my colleagues Mackenzie Wilkes at mwilkes@politico.com and Juan Perez Jr. at jperez@politico.com. And follow us: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro.

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THE STATES

Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters bows his head in prayer along with board members during a special state Board of Education meeting.

Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters, at center, bows his head in prayer along with board members during a special state Board of Education meeting to discuss the U.S. Department of Education’s “Proposed Change to its Title IX Regulations on Students’ Eligibility for Athletic Teams” on April 12, 2023, in Oklahoma City. | Sue Ogrocki/AP

WHO IS RYAN WALTERS? — Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters is trying to remake public education by injecting religion into schools. He is working to make the case that, in a country he sees as corrupted by liberal indoctrination and beset with a civil war over young minds, God has a place in public schools.

— The 38-year-old former teacher became superintendent, a role that oversees all public education in the state, after winning a commanding margin during 2022’s midterm elections. He is now at the forefront of social conservatives’ influence over education.

— Walters has tried to use his office to back a courtroom battle over the nation’s first public religious charter school — a Catholic institution that would be financed by taxpayers but free to teach, enroll and expel students based on faith-based doctrines just like a private parochial school.

— He has also interjected himself into a consistent string of news cycles: He’s described teacher unions as Marxist terrorist organizations; he explored a takeover of the Tulsa Public Schools system; he appointed Chaya Raichik, the far-right social media star who runs the Libs of TikTok account, to a state library committee in January; and his staunch opposition to LGBTQ+ rights has come under increasing national focus over the past month. More from our Juan Perez Jr.

White House

Family members hold portraits of the victims of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School as Vice President Kamala Harris walks by them.

Family members hold portraits of the victims of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School as Vice President Kamala Harris walks by them after speaking about gun safety measures at the high school in Parkland, Florida, on March 23, 2024. | Drew Angerer/AFP via Getty Images

HARRIS’ VISIT TO PARKLAND — Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday walked through the old Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School building, where 14 students and three staff members were killed by a gunman in 2018. She met with the families of the victims and walked through it ahead of plans to demolish the high school, which was preserved as evidence for the shooter’s trial that ended in 2022.

— “I will say thank you to the leaders of this community, starting with these families. This school is soon going to be torn down. But the memory of it will never be erased,” Harris said. “And let us through the courage and the call to action of these families find it in ourselves to consider what they’ve been through as some level of motivation and inspiration for all of us.”

— Harris, who oversees the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, also took the visit as an opportunity to announce the launch of a first-ever National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center to support states in implementing red flag laws. The center, funded by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and run by the Johns Hopkins' Center for Gun Violence Solutions, will provide training and technical assistance to states and localities.

— “Part of why I’m here today is to challenge every state. Pass a red flag law,” Harris said. “See how these leaders and these parents, through their advocacy born out of tragedy, have changed some of the laws in this state.” More from POLITICO’s Myah Ward.

BONUS: Myah also interviewed Fred Guttenberg, who helped push the White House to show up for the walk-through and met with Harris. His daughter, Jaime, was killed in the 2018 Parkland shooting. Now, Guttenberg is a senior adviser to Brady.

Higher Education

A HIGHER ED CONVENING — On Friday, the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders announced a convening for higher education leaders to be held on April 2 at the University of California, Berkeley. The event will be focused on best practices and addressing challenges Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students face.

Biden administration officials and higher education leaders will also focus on Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institutions and Native Hawaiian-serving institutions.

— “Our White House Initiative is laser focused on building on President Biden’s commitment to strengthen the capacity of Minority-Serving Institutions that have long served as engines of opportunity and empowerment for millions of Americans,” said Krystal Ka‘ai, the initiative’s executive director, in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to strengthen our engagement with students and higher education leaders to advance educational equity for our diverse AA and NHPI communities.”

Syllabus

— Afghanistan: Teen girls despair as Taliban school ban continues: BBC

— The man who helped redefine campus antisemitism: The New York Times

— ‘Kind of scary’: More Utah students feel unsafe in school restrooms, state data shows: The Salt Lake Tribune

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