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News You Can Use
From the News You Can Use Archives 03/26/07

March News Digest
By Ian Crawford, Web Communications Editor

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Washington Update
Legislation introduced last week would seek to streamline the application for federal student aid. Among the suggestions are plans to shrink the FAFSA from five pages to two and encourage more cooperation between the Education Department and the IRS in gathering information.

In the House, Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, and Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), introduced the "College Aid Made EZ Act."

In the Senate, Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) introduced the "Accessing College through Comprehensive Early Outreach and State Partnerships (ACCESS) Act” and the “Financial Aid Form Simplification and Access (FAFSA) Act.”

The “College Aid Made EZ Act” would simplify the federal college aid application process by:

  • Establishing a FAFSA-EZ form that would cut the FAFSA from its current length of five pages to just two, significantly reducing the number of questions that students and families must answer to qualify for college aid;
  • Creating a pre-FAFSA to allow students and parents to apply for financial aid while students are juniors in high school, providing families one extra year to plan for how to cover college costs;
  • Encouraging coordination with the IRS to use information the government already has, eliminating the need for applicants to re-submit income and asset information they have already provided on their tax forms; and
  • Improving online access to the FAFSA, speeding up the application process and allowing more students to apply for aid via the Internet.

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New Web Tool Will Assist With College Planning
The Department of Education announced a new Web tool to help students plan their financing for college while still in high school.

The FAFSA4caster:

  • Instantly calculates a student's eligibility for federal student aid, including grants
  • Reduces the time it will take to complete the FAFSA — the new tool will pre-populate 51 out of the 102 questions on the FAFSA
  • Simplifies the financial aid process for students and their families

The FAFSA4caster will be available on April 1 at www.federalstudentaid.ed.gov and a Spanish version will launch April 29. An enhanced version will be released in September and will estimate a student's entire aid package, including eligibility for federal student loans.

FAFSA4caster Information on the Federal Student Aid Web site

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Helicopter Parents Are Hovering More
A recent survey reports that so-called “helicopter parents” — those who “hover” around their child's lives at college a little more than usual — are quite aware of their behavior and exhibit it more than their parents did with them.

The survey of 1,700 members of the College Parents of America organization provides an interesting snapshot of involved parents.

When asked “How would you compare the level of involvement/communication you have with your student to the involvement/communication your parents had with you during college,” more than eight in 10 parents said they are “more” or “much more involved” in their child's life at college than their own parents were with them.

2nd Annual National Survey on College Parent Experiences - College Parents of America

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Identity Fraud Is on the Decline but Young People Are Most Likely Victims
Identity fraud declined in several key areas last year according to a report published this month . However, younger adults, like many of those attending higher education institutions, are most at risk of ID fraud.

In a News You Can Use article this month, we took a look at the good and bad news.

Complete Article: Identity Fraud Is on the Decline but Young People Are Most Likely Victims

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Story posted March 26, 2007.

E-mail comments to: news@EDFUND.org

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