“This is exactly what we hoped for when we started the pilot,” added Mr. King, who now serves as the chief executive of the Education Trust, which has lobbied to restore the grants. The expansion would make an additional 555,000 students newly eligible for the grants and 1.7 million more eligible to receive the maximum award. “While this is not the comprehensive overhaul of the Higher Education Act, and there is still work to be done, this proposal will help millions of students.”The package sends Mr. Alexander into retirement with a hard-fought legacy of simplifying the federal government’s financial aid form, called the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. For years, Mr. Alexander has shown up to public appearances and committee hearings with a copy of the pages-long application, unfolded it in dramatic fashion, and urged lawmakers to act. He said that in his home state, the form is “the single biggest impediment to Tennesseans applying for two years of tuition-free college.”The new package will cut the number of questions from 108 to a maximum of 36.

Source: New York Times December 21, 2020 23:19 UTC