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President Obama on Friday will lay out more details about the education proposals in his budget and also discuss his administration’s efforts to get more students to apply for federal student aid.
The President and First Lady Michelle Obama plan to visit a high school in Miami where they will kick off a previously-announced initiative by the Education Department to boost completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as the FAFSA. Education Department officials will share data with states and high schools on which of their students have begun the FAFSA so that counselors can work with those students to actually complete the form, which is required to receive federal grants and loans for college.
As part of her recent higher education push, Mrs. Obama has been speaking out about the importance of applying for federal aid. Last month she tapped a public service announcement encouraging students to fill out the FAFSA.
In a fact sheet accompanying the Obamas’ trip, the White House touted a 33 percent increase in the number of FAFSA forms filed over the course of the Obama administration, which shortened and streamlined the application. The number of FAFSA submissions increased from 16.4 million in 2008-2009 to 21.8 million in 2012-2013, the White House said. But efforts to target low-income students, in particular, have had more mixed results. The percentage of low-income students who filed a FAFSA for the first time in the 2013 fiscal year ticked down to 57.1 percent from 60.3 percent the previous year, failing to meet the department’s own goal.
Department officials have said they are also considering allowing web developers to build third-party services and applications that can interact with the FAFSA form, which is currently available only through the government’s website.
