Rocio Romero, Spring 2009 News Editor
The Free Application for Federal Aid, a program that offers grants that don’t have to be paid off, work study programs you earn while enrolled in school and loans that help pay the majority of students educational expenses; has a leading educational panel interested in terminating it.
According to a Sept. 18 article in the Los Angeles Times, The Rethinking Student Aid group suggested reworking this detailed form since it becomes complicated for some families to fill it out.
The group, co-chaired by Sandy Baum, Skidmore College economics professor and Michael S. McPherson, president of The Spencer Foundation, proposes creating college accounts for children from families too poor to save on their own, lowering qualification criteria to be based on only income and family size, redirecting loan subsidies to graduates who are having trouble paying off their debt and linking federal dollars for work-study and other programs according to how successful schools are at keeping students in college.
The group’s purpose is to make the FAFSA efficient and simple, because according to career-guidance counselor Sanji Sharma, students are not taking advantage of the benefit the six-page form offers.
“More than 65 percent of students qualify for financial aid and it keeps increasing each year,” said Sharma, who has been helping various students for the past five years in the Financial Aid office.
She said the majority of students don’t realize they can find the financial assistance to pay off their education costs, but some tend to prejudge, “‘Oh, it’s too hard or ‘I am not going to qualify.'”
Brenda Vega, 18, who has been attending Pierce College for a year, benefits from the FAFSA tremendously since her parents find it difficult to afford her education.
“If it wasn’t for the FAFSA, I wouldn’t be taking the classes I am taking right now,” she said.
Despite finding the FAFSA to be worth it overall, student Krystal Ekelund, 18, says there is no doubt it becomes complicated when it comes down to filling out the time-consuming FAFSA.