When Government Eventually Gets It Right

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) underwent significant reform, a legislative achievement championed by former U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander before his retirement in 2020. The FAFSA is the primary application for approximately 17 million students and family members annually seeking federal grants, loans, and work-study assistance, as well as state and institutional aid, serving as a critical gateway to college financing for at least 6 million students. Over time, the form had become excessively complex, posing a barrier for many prospective college students and their parents. Senator Alexander, who had previously served as U.S. Secretary of Education in 1992 when the form was created, dedicated considerable effort to its simplification. He famously used a seven-foot-long paper copy of the FAFSA to illustrate its convoluted nature, questioning why families needed to re-enter information already held by the government or navigate a form that discouraged students most in need of financial aid. In 2019, Alexander, alongside Democratic Senator Doug Jones of Alabama, introduced bipartisan legislation aimed at reducing the number of FAFSA questions from 108 to approximately 18.