Emanuel Plan to Simplify College Financial Aid Form to be Voted on Tomorrow

Press Release

EMANUEL PLAN TO SIMPLIFY COLLEGE FINANCIAL AID FORM TO BE VOTED ON TOMORROW

Today, legislation to simplify the form that students and parents must fill out to receive college financial aid is on the brink of becoming law. Emanuel first began working on this issue in 2001 after meeting with Chicago firefighter Pat Kehoe, who told Emanuel about the difficulty he faced when filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) when his daughter was preparing to attend college. Emanuel's legislation to simplify the FAFSA is included in the final version of the Higher Education Opportunity Act, which is expected to pass the House of Representatives tomorrow and be signed into law by President Bush.

"I'll never forget meeting Rahm for the first time back in 2001 - he dropped into the firehouse while he was walking the neighborhoods. I told him about what a hassle it was just to see if my daughter was eligible for financial aid for college -page after page that might make sense to a CPA but to no one else," said Kehoe. "Rahm told me that he'd fight to make it easier for parents to send their kids to school, and he did it. I'm so happy that more kids will be able to go to college, and less parents will have to go through the struggle that my wife and I did."

In its current state, the form - the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) - is excessively complicated and can prevent many students from applying for and receiving the financial aid they need to attend college. The current FAFSA form contains over one hundred questions and can take an average family several days and sometimes several tries to fill out the questionnaire. In contrast, the Export-Import bank requires loan applicants to answer thirteen questions when applying for a loan.

"It shouldn't be easier to get a loan from the Export-Import bank than to get financial aid to attend college," said Emanuel. "In America today, you earn what you learn and making college more affordable and accessible is one of my top priorities."

Emanuel has been a champion for breaking down the barriers that keep middle-class families from achieving their dreams of a college education. He was one of the architects of the Financial Aid Simplification Act of 2003, which led to the Advisory Committee for Student Financial Assistance study whose recommendations shaped Emanuel's College Aid Made EZ Act, which was first introduced in 2005. The College Aid Made EZ Act of 2007 has now been included in the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008. Highlights of Emanuel's legislation include:

* Streamlining the FAFSA Application Process

o Enables the U.S. Education Secretary to reduce the number of questions on the FAFSA form over the next five years.

o Simplifies the FAFSA re-application process so that an applicant can update information in subsequent years, rather than re-filing a new FAFSA form.

o Enables the U.S. Department of Education and the Internal Revenue Service to work together to use information the government already has from applicants' federal tax forms, such as income and asset information.

* Providing Families with Early Estimates of College Aid Packages

o Allows students and families to enter information and receive estimates of their Expected Family Contribution as well as their estimated federal student aid packages in the years before they fill out the FAFSA.

* Creating an Easier Application Process for Low-Income Families

o Creates a two-age "FAFSA-EZ" form for low-income students and families who qualify for the "auto-zero" family contribution

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