The deadline for Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms for the 20232024 academic year recently closed on June 30th. FAFSA is the form students and prospective students fill out to apply for grants, work-study, and low-interest loans from the U.S. Department of Education. Before the next FAFSA application cycle opens up on October 1, there is a critical error that Congress must fix to ensure farm families can continue to receive fair consideration of their applications for aid.
In 2022, over 80,000 Nebraskans filed for federal financial assistance for higher education through the FAFSA form. Millions of American families, including tens of thousands in Nebraska, rely on federal financial aid to afford college. The once 108-questions-long form was overly complex. Efforts under both Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden have worked to simplify it.
During the most recent simplification effort last year, however, The FAFSA Simplification Act changed the way a family’s assets, income and debt are calculated. As written, the rule unfairly assumes that small businesses and family farms can liquidate assets quickly to pay for college.This is despite the longstanding FAFSA process exclusion of non-liquid farm assets, such as farmland and equipment. These exclusions protected our farm families’ access to federal student aid.The repercussions of this new rule would be devastating for farm families and other similar family-owned small businesses across the country.The most the significant change to FAFSA included altering the federal needs analysis formula used to determine students’ financial aid eligibility.Without being fixed, this change could force small businesses and family agriculture operations to choose between sending their children to college and liquidating assets or dismantling their businesses.
