FAFSA delays should put gainful employment on back burner, lawmakers say
Laura Spitalniak
March 22, 2024
A bipartisan group of senators urged the Education Department to delay college reporting deadlines amid a shortened financial aid cycle.
Dive Brief:
Senators from both sides of the aisle are pushing the U.S. Department of Education to delay implementation of its gainful employment rule amid a rocky release of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
In a Thursday letter, the four legislators urged U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to extend the July 1 deadline for colleges to submit student outcome and financial transparency data. They also asked the Education Department to further ease its verification requirements for colleges’ financial aid offices.
This year’s updated FAFSA is intended to simplify the financial aid process, but the glitchy rollout has only made it more challenging, they wrote.
Dive Insight:
The Education Department released the long-awaited final version of its gainful employment rule in September. The regulation requires career programs to prove their students earn more than they owe following graduation, and that at least half outearn state residents with only a high school diploma. Low-performing programs could lose access to federal funds, likely keeping students from enrolling and shutting them down.
