The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, is the main form that prospective college students use to qualify for federal grants, loans, and work-study assistance, as well as aid from many states and colleges. Roughly 17 million students and family members use the FAFSA system each year, and at least 6 million students use it as the gateway to paying for college. It’s one of the most important pieces of the college-opportunity machinery in the country.
Over the years, however, FAFSA had grown far too complex and confusing, making it challenging for kids and their parents to navigate. Former Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee—who also served two terms as governor of Tennessee and was U.S. secretary of education in 1992 when Congress created the form—was keenly aware of the problem and made FAFSA simplification one of his signature causes.
Alexander had a showman’s way of making the point. As chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, he memorably used a giant paper copy of the FAFSA form, about seven feet long connected end-to-end, to dramatize how absurd the application had become. The prop was memorable and the point was obvious. The federal government claimed it wanted to help students get to college but required them to complete a form so long and complex it could intimidate the families most in need of that help.
