FAFSA Congressional Hearings

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At the risk of spiking my blood pressure, I watched the Congressional Hearing held this morning on the unfolding FAFSA fiasco. I have a few observations on the Hearings themselves, but first I wanted to share why we are covering the subject in depth.

Why the FAFSA fiasco matters

FAFSA itself is not an EdTech issue, but a lot of what we do here at On EdTech and in our market analysis service is to provide explanatory context that helps higher education institutions, the vendors that sell to them, and investors make better and more informed decisions.

The absolute botch up that has been made of FAFSA is going to have profound effects on that context. So many higher education institutions are increasingly tuition-driven, and enrollment declines have challenged many of those institutions. Many fewer students have completed FAFSA applications this year which makes it more likely that they will not attend college. With the fact that it is looking to be a two-year problem at a minimum (see below), and hence potentially a multi-year enrollment dip on top of a long-term enrollment slide, we are looking at a higher ed context that will be under duress. This not only threatens students, but also institutions and ultimately vendors working with higher education.

What we learned at the hearing

The House of Representatives Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development held a Hearing this morning on the problems with the rollout of the new, simpler FAFSA form. The subcommittee called four witnesses: Mark Kantrowitz, from the financial aid consulting firm Cerebly; Justin Draeger, President & CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators; Kim Cook, CEO of National College Attainment Network (NCAN); and Rachelle Feldman, Vice Provost, Enrollment, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

I came away with four main observations that I’d like to share with premium subscribers.

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