Untangling the Bungled FAFSA Launch
Katherine Knott and Liam Knox
March 4, 2024
Politics, priorities and a set of unforced errors unraveled the Education Department’s best-laid plans for a federal aid overhaul. Critics say they should have seen it coming.
When the Department of Education first delayed the launch of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid last March, officials projected calm and confidence.
The department assured students and institutions that the new form would make applying for aid easier, and the new formulas they were implementing would mean more federal money for low-income families. The “Better FAFSA,” as they took to calling it, would be worth the wait and ready when it launched.
Nearly a year later, the application is finally available to most students after a soft launch in late December that was riddled with technical issues, many of which remain unresolved. The department has yet to begin processing completed applications, preventing colleges and universities from sending aid packages to students. Lawmakers have called for hearings on the bungled process, and two investigations are underway.
