Congress is back from their two-week recess and held two education-centric hearings this week. The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education held a hearing on the President’s budget proposal and heard testimony from Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona. Meanwhile, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing to discuss the challenges students, families and financial aid officers are experiencing with the rollout of the Department of Education’s new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form, which was released in December of 2023.
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s hearing reviewed the difficulties that students and financial aid offices are struggling with related to the new FAFSA as college admissions deadlines approach. There have been challenges both with the form submission and processing, leaving many colleges without the information they need to issue financial aid offers. Lower rates of FAFSA submission (about 40% down from the previous year) have led to concerns about postsecondary attendance in the Fall.
Congressman Glenn “GT” Thompson, co-chair of the House CTE Caucus, asked witnesses about the root cause of certain difficulties the platform has faced and expressed concern about students whose aid would be potentially limited or eliminated by overall changes to the FAFSA. Witnesses noted it was too soon to tell how formula changes were impacting students because of the other issues with the process
Lawmakers also raised the issue of student debt, debating whether recent efforts focused on relieving student loan debt might be drawing resources away from solving FAFSA obstacles. These concerns were echoed in the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Committee’s Hearing on the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget request. Secretary Cardona discussed the aforementioned concerns by reassuring lawmakers that no other project was redirecting resources from FAFSA, and that it remains a top priority for the department.
Secretary Cardona also discussed some areas in the budget that the Department of Education is working on, including but not limited to their Raise the Bar Initiative, academic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and the accessibility and affordability of various career and college pathways to ensure students have more opportunities for rewarding careers. Other concerns that members surfaced in this hearing included absenteeism and the availability of support services for students, including mental health support and assistance for food insecurity.
Secretary Cardona will continue discussing these issues with lawmakers in the coming months, likely testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee as well, while Congress works on their budget for FY 2025. The President’s FY 2025 Budget Proposal was released earlier this year, and ACTE’s analysis of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education bill is posted on our blog. We will continue to share updates and important information pertaining to this process, and advocate for robust funding for CTE at the federal level.
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