There’s catastrophe brewing because of modifications in the best way faculty college students file their Free Software for Federal Pupil Assist (FAFSA). Delays in transmission of utility knowledge because of the rollout of a brand new utility web site might probably have an effect on hundreds of thousands of scholars, and in some circumstances, delay or value them their monetary support. However this story, probably the most disastrous rollout and implementation of a authorities web site since healthcare dot gov, doesn’t seem like newsworthy sufficient for ABC World Information Tonight.
It’s not like they’re fully unaware of the story. Right here’s how the community lined the preliminary rollout of the appliance modifications on Saturday, December thirtieth, 2023:
WHIT JOHNSON: The method for making use of for faculty monetary support might quickly turn out to be a bit simpler. The Schooling Division is anticipated to debut its new on-line FAFSA type, which permits households and college students to offer monetary info to colleges. The revamp is meant to simplify the method, however it’ll additionally embrace new ways in which support is calculated, which means a change in how a lot in some college students that they may obtain.
Alas, the method was not made simpler. And the glitches are ongoing, to today. Per the Twin Cities’ Fox affiliate:
WASHINGTON – The Division of Schooling disclosed an error in its analysis of federal pupil support, probably resulting in prolonged delays for hundreds of candidates.
This example places quite a few college students who’ve sought federal support for faculty funding susceptible to indefinite postponements, significantly as enrollment deadlines strategy.
The Federal Pupil Assist workplace, which manages the Free Software for Federal Pupil Assist (FAFSA), introduced on March 24 that its system failed to include all essential knowledge fields to precisely compute support primarily based on college students’ reported property.
Consequently, candidates will need to have their submissions reprocessed and introduced to instructional establishments.
…
The Division of Schooling acknowledged that the miscalculation has been rectified with out specifying the timeframe for reprocessing the impacted purposes.
Nonetheless, it acknowledged that the company had disseminated inaccurate info.
Roughly 200,000 purposes have been affected out of the over 1.5 million already processed in a yr, the place at the very least 6 million FAFSAs have been submitted so far.
The present challenge arises amidst a considerably delayed system as officers rush to handle technical malfunctions within the on-line type, deal with utility processing, and expedite the distribution of monetary support packages.
You’ll suppose {that a} main foulup similar to this, which has already drawn calls for for a congressional investigation, would garner considerably extra community night information air time than a minute and 55 seconds on CBS (2/29), two minutes and 14 seconds on NBC (3/1), and nil minutes on ABC, and but right here we’re.
As Erick Erickson rightly notes, this SHOULD be a serious nationwide information story. Schooling Secretary Miguel Cardona, who has devoted vital parts of his tenure to defending the development of the sexualization of kids in colleges in addition to the best of males to compete in ladies’s sports activities, has escaped the form of scrutiny that DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has drawn over his dealing with of the border and that Transportation Secretary Peter Buttigieg has drawn over, effectively…every thing else.
And while you cease to contemplate whether or not the story of the FAFSA catastrophe has actually gone underreported, ask your self: what would the protection be like had this occurred beneath Betsy DeVos? As soon as once more, the Regime Media exit of their approach to keep away from reporting a narrative that makes the Biden administration look unhealthy.