The FAFSA Drama Continues - Part 16

From Inside Higher Ed: A government investigation into last year’s rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid found that Education Department officials failed to properly test and prepare the form and launched it despite signs that it was not ready for wide release—an oversight that proved disastrous.

The department’s missteps are detailed in two documents from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, released this morning.* 

GAO officials will give testimony about the findings at a House higher education subcommittee hearing today.

The department has already delayed the form’s launch for the 2025–26 application cycle to December in order to make time for testing, which is set to begin next week. GAO officials warned that the next FAFSA is at risk for similar delays and technical issues because of systemic problems in the department and the Office of Federal Student Aid, the agency that oversees the FAFSA...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/student-aid-policy/2024/09/24/gao-releases-initial-findings-fafsa-investigation.

Comment: This episode is reminiscent of the episode during the Obama administration in which the federal website for enrolling in health insurance failed. No heads rolled back then for that snafu. None seemed to have rolled for the FAFSA snafu now. Just saying...

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*https://www.insidehighered.com/sites/default/files/2024-09/GAO-24-107407.pdf.