Congress has approved the FY 2024 federal budget. We dodged a bullet.
The House had pressed to eliminate entirely the Federal Work-Study (FWS) and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG) programs, and the Senate proposed a $10 million dollar cut to each program. However, the version approved over the weekend retains their funding at current levels – when both houses propose cuts the return to flat funding is very rare. This is a big victory.
While we had been hoping for at least a modest increase in the Pell Grant maximum, it remains at $7,395. Again, in the current political environment, flat funding is a win.
The budget was due on October 1, but that’s not out of the ordinary. Congress hasn’t approved an on-time budget since 1997.
The FAFSA mess just keeps getting worse.
A quick recap: Students and their families fill out the new simplified Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form – the one bit of good news is that feedback indicates families find the new FAFSA much easier to fill out – and transmit it to the U.S. Education Department. Once the Education Department processes the FAFSAs it sends the information back to campuses in the form of Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs).
The Education Department promised to start sending the ISIRs by mid-March. A few campuses across the country received a handful of ISIRs so that the Education Department could declare victory, but they’re way behind and no one expects to receive the bulk of the ISIRs before April.
The Education Department has received 6 million FAFSAs but processed and sent to campuses only 1.5 million. However, on Friday the Education Department announced it had incorrectly calculated the Student Aid Index for 200,000 FAFSAs from dependent students who reported assets, assigning to them less aid than they qualified for. While the problem has been fixed, the glitch will require the Education Department re-process and resent those FAFSAs.
These mistakes and delays are having an impact. In a typical year the Education Department processes about 17 million FAFSAs. But Inside Higher Education reported on data from the National College Attainment Network which show, as of March 15, only 32 percent of the high school graduating class of 2024 had submitted a form, a decline of more than 30 percent from this time last year. That’s just incoming freshmen – campuses are also concerned about FAFSA completion by current students.
As I’ve discussed before, all campuses, including SCICU member institutions, will be greatly delayed in putting together financial aid packages, which will hold up the whole admissions process. Prospective students will make their colleges decisions later and may put down multiple deposits to lock in a seat until they get the offers. That will make it very difficult for campuses to project their enrollment in the fall, and hence what revenue they can expect.
At this point all we can do is hope the Education Department gets its act together and starts churning out ISIRs.
South Carolina Update