The Schooling Division has tapped School Board president Jeremy Singer to serve in a brand new position overseeing the rollout of subsequent 12 months’s Free Software for Federal Pupil Help.
The information, supplied first to Inside Increased Ed, comes as greater training teams have grown more and more involved that the company received’t launch a working FAFSA on time—by Oct. 1—after this 12 months’s utility confronted quite a few delays and technical glitches. Schooling Secretary Miguel Cardona has repeatedly assured Congress, faculties and households that the shape will likely be prepared—and that the appliance will likely be higher.
Bringing on Singer, a know-how options knowledgeable who oversaw the event and launch of the brand new digital SAT, is the clearest sign but that the division is shaking up its FAFSA strategy as a part of different “transformational modifications” on the Workplace for Federal Pupil Help (FSA). The shape is essential to unlocking billions in federal, state and institutional assist for hundreds of thousands of scholars.
“I’m honored to hitch a group whose work is important to households throughout the nation,” Singer mentioned in a press release Friday. “It’s not possible to overstate the significance of FAFSA in making faculty attainable for hundreds of thousands of scholars. I’m desirous to take heed to college students, households and educators who depend on FAFSA. We’ll do all the things we are able to to ship an improved expertise to higher serve college students.”
Singer, who has been president of the School Board since 2013, is a well-known face for faculties and universities, a few of whom have grown skeptical of the Schooling Division over its dealing with of the FAFSA. Singer will likely be taking momentary depart from the School Board to be the FAFSA govt adviser. In that position, he’ll lead FSA’s technique on the 2025–26 FAFSA in addition to work with the division “to strengthen inside programs and processes, bolster technical capabilities, and drive innovation to assist guarantee optimum efficiency” of the appliance’s launch.
“Jeremy brings deep expertise having efficiently led the event and introduction of main know-how improvements in training, which will likely be integral to bettering the FAFSA expertise and guaranteeing hundreds of thousands of scholars and households can simply entry the federal monetary assist they’re entitled to,” Cardona mentioned in a press release.
In interviews Friday, School Board trustees praised Singer and his management model, expressing confidence in his capacity to proper the FAFSA ship. Derek Kindle, who’s vice provost for enrollment administration on the College of Wisconsin at Madison, mentioned that Singer will deliver candor and a solutions-oriented strategy to Federal Pupil Help in addition to expertise with advanced technological programs and points.
“I feel it’s a sensible and savvy transfer to decide on Jeremy due to his skillset,” he mentioned. “I do know Jeremy is the kind of one that can get in a room, get individuals collectively and get them on the identical web page in the direction of the mission.”
Gail Holt, dean of monetary assist at Amherst School and a School Board trustee, mentioned that Singer is well-versed in what households and establishments want and understands the monetary assist timeline.
“So I’m enthusiastic about it,” she mentioned. “It provides me hope and promise at a interval that for a monetary assist group has actually been dwindling these many months.”
Following the varied FAFSA delays and challenges, Holt mentioned that her group at Amherst is “managing and pivoting in addition to may very well be anticipated.” They’re about midway via getting returning college students their assist data.
Having Singer on the helm provides her extra belief within the course of for subsequent 12 months. “I can’t stress sufficient, if he’s obtained the proper individuals with him, which I consider he’ll, he can set a course that may get us again on monitor,” she mentioned. “… The School Board as a complete may be very effectively accustomed to how instruments and sources can create a bridge for college kids to get from secondary faculty to greater ed to their future.”
Along with hiring Singer, the division introduced a sequence of listening classes over the approaching weeks to tell how the company can higher assist college students, households, faculties, states and different companions through the 2025–26 FAFSA cycle. Moreover, the division mentioned Friday that the appliance for 2025–26 will “stay constant” with this 12 months’s type in an effort to decrease disruptions.
On the course of Congress, the division overhauled the shape for the 2024–25 educational 12 months in an effort to make it less complicated to make use of. Congress additionally dictated quite a few modifications to the underlying methodology that determines how a lot monetary assist a scholar is eligible for, which opened up the Pell Grant to 1000’s of extra college students. The modifications took longer than the division initially deliberate, and proved more difficult. The division’s information launch mentioned that the company has made “important progress” in addressing and resolving “main identified points” with the 2024–25 utility.
Nonetheless, officers acknowledged the toll of the rocky rollout.
“The expansive scope and timeline of the modifications for twenty-four–25 has been difficult for college kids, households, establishments, states, and organizations that assist them,” officers mentioned within the launch.
The division has acquired and processed greater than 11.1 million assist functions. The tempo of functions has involved faculties who anxious that the FAFSA points would deter some college students from pursuing postsecondary training. In March, the division had acquired 40 % fewer functions than typical, although that hole has since closed to eight %, in line with Friday’s information launch.
To additional shut that hole, the division introduced a $50 million FAFSA Pupil Assist Technique to fund efforts to spice up FAFSA completion charges. Thus far, greater than $30 million has been awarded to greater than 180 organizations.