Despite a 6-3 Supreme Court decision saying the debt-relief program was unconstitutional, the Biden administration has erased $168.5 billion in debt for 4.76 million borrowers.
confusion, delays and unnecessary redundancy. The Department of Education decided to overhaul FAFSA last year for the 2024-2025 school year. When the new system was introduced in 2023, it was delayed two months and even then “it kept crashing,” says Rachael Cutcher, financial aid director for Santa Rosa Junior College. Nearly a year later, Cutcher says it’s still in disarray. Shannon Little, director of financial aid at Sonoma State University agrees. “The Department of Education wasn’t really ready and [the new FAFSA] roll-out was rocky to say the least,” she says. “The new [system] messed up everything for borrowers and students,” McCuan says. “And it gives the impression that the higher education finance system is completely broken. Therefore, what is difficult to navigate, whether you’re on the liberal or conservative side of this, is fixing a student loan system that is broken. It’s similar to what we see with comprehensive immigration reform and other issues that are percolating in public policy this election year. All of these things are part of a broader set of circumstances that are a challenge to solve. It’s not strictly on the Biden Administration. Many of these things have been going on a long time.” Getting aid There are myriad financial aid packages available to students and navigating the system can be challenging, but
professionals like Cutcher and Little and their respective staffs are readily available to help. It all starts with the FAFSA application, Cutcher says, and then branches into alternative aid sources if students are ineligible for federal aid for one reason or another. For instance, the California Dream Act is an aid program for undocumented or “dreamer” students. There are Pell Grants (federal) and CalGrants (state). There are parent loans and private loans. And then there are scads of scholarship programs, including SRJC’s Doyle Scholarship, which Cutcher describes as “nothing short of amazing.” First awarded in 1950, the Doyle Scholarship Program has benefited more than 140,000 students at SRJC, with awards totaling more than $100 million. While much of the application process is automated, the challenges with the new FAFSA system have required more human intervention, with some information needing to be submitted manually and in duplicate. “Financial aid officers are finding we need to be resilient, flexible and patient and we try to also impart that to our students,” Cutcher says. “We want to make it right for them, but it is taking more time.” While Cutcher did not express any opinions regarding the Biden Administration student aid relief efforts, she did point to one program she’s very fond of: Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). Created by Congress during the George W. Bush
44 NorthBaybiz
September 2024
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