Student Aid Policy

The Education Department received nearly 13,000 comments about its planned income-driven repayment overhaul, which it wants to carry out this year. But first, it will have to review all the comments.

The first hearing of the new House Committee on Education and the Workforce featured talk about the return on investment of a college education, expanding the Pell Grant to cover short-term programs and the need to provide more access to postsecondary programs.

Overhauling the federal financial system and simplifying the Free Application for Federal Student Aid is a significant undertaking for the Education Department. Although the agency is making progress on the project, officials said this week the application might not be ready by Oct. 1.

And that’s a slight drop from the Class of 2021.

The Federal Student Aid ombudsman fielded nearly 90,000 complaints in 2022—more than double the previous year. Nearly two-thirds of the complaints were about issues with loans.

Proposed reforms to income-driven repayment represent a significant step toward offering borrowers a safety net, Sameer Gadkaree and Indivar Dutta-Gupta write.

Executive overreach or legal use of statutory authority? That will be a key question for the U.S. Supreme Court to consider when it hears arguments in two debt-relief lawsuits early this year.