Inside Biden’s FAFSA headache

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Feb 20, 2024 View in browser   By Michael Stratford INSIDE BIDEN’S FAFSA HEADACHE: Just weeks before President Joe Biden took office, Congress handed him an opportunity to simplify and modernize the nation’s federal financial aid process. — But, three years later, what was supposed to be a major accomplishment has morphed into a major government technology blunder that’s wreaking havoc on college admissions season and igniting bipartisan outrage on Capitol Hill. President Joe Biden's Education Department has been working for three years to implement law simplifying and modernizing federal student aid. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images — Education Department processing delays for the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid are set to force millions of families across the country to wait weeks, if not months, longer than usual to receive their financial aid packages this spring. — “This is equivalent at some level to the IRS not being able to collect tax returns on April 15,” said David Bergeron, a former senior Education Department official who served across multiple administrations. “For people whose kids are in high school today or starting college in the fall, this is a basic operation of government that they just assumed would move along as expected.” — The turmoil has already prompted dozens of colleges to postpone their typical May 1 deadline for students to commit to their institutions. Colleges access advocates, meanwhile, are worried the FAFSA turmoil will turn off vulnerable populations of students. — Inside the Education Department, officials have been scrambling for months to get the FAFSA system back on track while also managing the fallout from major financial aid delays. — Officials have blamed various factors that contributed to the FAFSA hiccups: the sheer complexity of the task, a lack of adequate funding from Congress, and a last-minute change to the financial aid formula after the agency mistakenly failed to properly account for inflation. — But officials are also privately pointing fingers at a major outside vendor, General Dynamics, which was tasked with building out and operating the new FAFSA processing system for missed deadlines and delays. — “It’s all hands on deck,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told reporters last week, calling the delays “very frustrating and challenging.” Read more from your host and Bianca Quilantan here. IT’S TUESDAY, FEB. 20. WELCOME TO MORNING EDUCATION. Please send tips and feedback to the POLITICO education team: Michael Stratford (mstratford@politico.com), Mackenzie Wilkes (mwilkes@politico.com), Juan Perez Jr. (jperez@politico.com) and Bianca Quilantan (bquilantan@politico.com). Follow us: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro.   SUBSCRIBE TO GLOBAL PLAYBOOK: Don’t miss out on POLITICO’s Global Playbook, the newsletter taking you inside pivotal discussions at the most influential gatherings in the world, including WEF in Davos, Milken Global in Beverly Hills, to UNGA in NYC and many more. Suzanne Lynch delivers the world's elite and influential moments directly to you. Stay in the global loop. SUBSCRIBE NOW.     Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories. On the Hill CASSIDY DIVES INTO THE READING WARS: Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the top Republican on the Senate education committee, this morning is detailing his ideas to build up child reading skills, releasing a report that backs a form of literacy instruction known as the “science of reading.” — Cassidy is also soliciting policy feedback with the goal of developing potential federal legislation to improve child literacy. “We are at risk of having an entire generation of children, those who were in their prime learning years during the COVID-19 pandemic, fail to become productive adults if reading proficiency does not improve,” Cassidy wrote in his report. — The steps Cassidy cites reflect something of a bipartisan literacy consensus that emerged prior to the pandemic. Roughly 220 pieces of reading-related legislation were enacted in 45 states and the District of Columbia between 2019 and 2022, according to a report last year from the union-affiliated Albert Shanker Institute. — The science of reading — a collection of research that encourages literacy instruction based on phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, phonemic awareness and fluency — has garnered significant chatter as part of those debates. The concept even has support from leaders of the country’s teacher unions and the far-right Moms for Liberty group. — Yet there have been setbacks for its widespread adoption and implementation. A review from the National Council on Teacher Quality last year, for example, concluded most higher education teacher prep programs don’t adequately cover the idea. Juan Perez Jr. has more here. Student Loans TALKS OVER BIDEN’S STUDENT DEBT PLAN RESUME THIS WEEK: The Biden administration later this week will hold what’s expected to be the final public hearings on its next mass student debt relief plan. — The Education Department’s negotiated rulemaking committee will debate a proposal, unveiled by the White House last week, to craft a sweeping debt relief program for borrowers experiencing financial hardship. — The draft plan calls for a one-time, automatic discharge of student debt for borrowers for whom the Education Department has data suggesting they are at least 80 percent likely to default on their debt within the next two years. — The proposal outlines more than a dozen factors that the administration will use to make those determinations, such as household income, total debt balance, history of loan repayment and receipt of a Pell Grant. In addition, the administration’s proposal also contemplates applications from individual borrowers experiencing hardship. — What to watch: The panel is unlikely to reach the unanimous agreement needed to lock in a specific proposal. The Education Department will then be free in the coming months to craft its proposal as it sees fit. But the hearings will give advocates for widespread debt cancellation the opportunity to publicly press the administration into going as big as possible. — The schedule: Undersecretary of Education James Kvaal will deliver opening remarks Thursday morning at the opening of the daylong virtual session, which will be followed by another session on Friday. State of play ICYMI: USDA EASES DEADLINE FOR SUMMER FOOD AID FOR KIDS: The Agriculture Department said Friday it will still allow states to apply for a summer nutrition program for kids even if they’ve missed key enrollment deadlines. — Even though the Jan. 1 deadline has passed, an agency spokesperson told POLITICO’s Marcia Brown that USDA “will consider every situation based on the specific circumstances.” — Several states, led by Republican governors, have declined to participate in the program, which represents the biggest expansion of federal anti-hunger programming in decades. Summer EBT, which is based on a pandemic-era federal nutrition program, is expected to feed as many as 30 million eligible children, reducing hunger during months when children can’t rely on school meals. — Unlike the pandemic program, however, the permanent program requires states to contribute half of the administrative costs. Several of the GOP governors that declined to participate have been under growing pressure to reconsider their decision.   DON’T MISS POLITICO’S GOVERNORS SUMMIT: Join POLITICO on Feb. 22 to dive into how Governors are wielding immense power. While Washington remains gridlocked, governors are at the center of landmark decisions in AI and tech, economic development, infrastructure, housing, reproductive health and energy. How are they setting the stage for the future of American politics, policies and priorities? How are they confronting major challenges? Explore these questions and more at the 2024 Governors Summit. REGISTER HERE.     Syllabus — Schools face big challenges accommodating migrants who've crossed the border: NPR. — Yale University apologizes for its role in slavery: The Washington Post. — After 35 years, he got $119,500 in student debt forgiven. Then the government refunded him $56,801: CNBC.   Follow us on Twitter Delece Smith-Barrow @DeleceWrites Michael Stratford @mstratford Bianca Quilantan @biancaquilan Juan Perez Jr. @PerezJr Mackenzie Wilkes @macwilkes   Follow us

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