Cardona Calls for FSA Changes, But Experts Say the Damage is Done

It’s been a year of missteps, miscalculations, confusion, delays, glitches, and frustration after the botched launch of the simplified FAFSA, which has prevented financial aid packages from being awarded to students with ample time to make plans for their future.

Last week, Secretary of Education Dr. Miguel A. Cardona released a letter to Federal Student Aid (FSA) staff which acknowledged the errors made and a need for departmental modernization, which he outlined in an eight-point plan.

“Changes are needed to make sure students, borrowers, and families have a better user experience with FSA,” Cardona wrote. “These efforts include changes in leadership, boosting oversight and accountability, and engaging a variety of stakeholders so that FSA works best for our most important stakeholders — students and families.”

Dr. Katharine Meyer, fellow in the Governance Studies program at the Brown Center on Education Policy at the nonprofit Brookings Institution.While experts are overall pleased to hear that Cardona is making an effort to adjust the direction of the FSA, they add that it is too late for these changes to make an impact on students currently struggling to complete the FAFSA, many of whom are from mixed-immigration backgrounds, where social security requirements stalled their progress.

“Filing is down across the country,” said Dr. Katharine Meyer, a fellow in the Governance Studies program at the Brown Center on Education Policy at the nonprofit Brookings Institution. “While nationally, FAFSA completions are down about 14% from last year, completions are down 16.5% for schools with a higher share of minoritized students. We can expect that to translate into fewer students enrolling in college this fall.”

Trust needs to be rebuilt between the FSA, institutions, families and students they serve, said Jill Desjean, director of policy analysis at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA).

“Much of the chaos with this year’s FAFSA rollout could have been minimized – although not entirely avoided – if there had been more open communication from the ED to the financial aid community,” said Desjean. “However, ED chose to prioritize public relations over transparency and often buried the real news in celebratory updates that often downplayed the severity of the situation and left key questions unanswered.”

Jill Desjean, director of policy analysis at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.In his open letter, Cardona wrote the department is looking for a new Chief Operating Officer who can “improve the management and execution of critical services.” Cardona’s plan includes a thorough review of the FSA’s operation systems and independent contractors and utilizing an outside firm to review efficiency. The senior leadership reporting structure will be adjusted for accountability, and a new technology innovation team will work to ensure the FSA is up to 21st Century expectations. Cardona wrote the department will work closely with the Office of the Inspector General, members of Congress, and it will continue outreach efforts to communities this summer to gather performance feedback.

Desjean said this feedback will be critical to improving the errors experienced by students and their families this year. Others agreed, calling for the FSA and ED leadership to overhaul in favor of communication and transparency.

“Communication from the department has been horrendous – the FAFSA cycle started with too few communications from FSA, and then when notices came they were insensitive to the challenges students and colleges were facing and advocated for policies far too late,” said Meyer, adding that Cardona did not recommend for states to push back their financial aid deadlines until late March 2024, while she and other education researchers began urging a precautionary deadline adjustment as early as a year before.

“It was clear early on that this implementation was going to be challenging, and at minimum the department should have developed a more cohesive and proactive communication plan to guide everyone through this FAFSA cycle,” said Meyer. “There’s been a lot of ill will developed between colleges, states, and ED this cycle, and it will take time to rebuild those bridges and gain trust again.”

Dr. Federick Ngo, an associate professor of higher education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said this summer shouldn’t just be a time to review what went wrong, but a continuation of every effort to ensure as many students as possible are able to begin their educational journeys without further delay.

“FAFSA simplification was supposed to be one of those research-to-policy-change success stories we all hope for as researchers committed to social justice in education,” said Ngo. “Looking internally at processes, staffing, and workflow is obviously a critically important step after a debacle like this. It also underscores how policies, no matter how well they are designed, are only as good as their implementation. Getting implementation right on such a landmark reform should have been the office’s number one priority, and they cannot let this happen again.”

Liann Herder can be reached at [email protected].