West Virginia Declares State of Emergency Over FAFSA Chaos

Due to persistent glitches in the financial aid form, Gov. Jim Justice issued an executive order lifting the FAFSA requirement for several state grants.

On Tuesday, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) declared a state of emergency over persistent issues with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. The financial aid form, which is required for any college students seeking federal grants or loans—not to mention financial aid at most colleges—has been plagued with technical bugs since its rollout in December.

As part of the state of emergency, Justice has lifted the state's requirement that students submit the FAFSA form in order to receive major state grants. 

"I don't believe any other state in the nation has gone this far, but I simply cannot and will not stand by as money sits on the table that could be helping our students continue their education," Justice said in a press release. "There's only so much outreach you can do when students can't complete the form due to issues only the federal government can control. We have been left with no choice but to suspend the FAFSA requirement for our state financial aid programs."

As part of the 2020 Consolidated Appropriations Act, the Education Department was directed to create a streamlined version of the FAFSA form. On December 31, 2023, the department finally released the new form—more than two months later than FAFSA's usual release date and without extending the deadline for completion. While the updated form was much shorter than previous versions, it was also inundated with technical bugs.

FAFSA's own website details dozens of errors in the form since its release date—some that persisted for months, preventing students from completing the form at all. In March, the Education Department even announced that around 200,000 complete forms had been miscalculated, leading colleges and the government to offer students more financial aid than they were eligible for.

In a typical year, around 17 million students fill out the FAFSA form, but as of mid-April successful form completions are down 29 percent. That means millions of students who would typically complete the form are likely to miss out on financial aid for college.

How is West Virginia going to know who is eligible for state grants without FAFSA? According to Tuesday's press release, students can show they're eligible for the need-based Higher Education Grant by providing their school with a letter showing they qualify for one of several state welfare programs (like Medicaid or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Students who previously received the grant don't have to prove eligibility again. 

The governor's executive order also lifts the FAFSA requirement for a handful of other state educational grants, though it isn't clear if students will need to complete additional steps in place of FAFSA to receive funding. 

Justice's executive order highlights just how disastrous this year's FAFSA rollout has become—and sends a powerful signal that, if the federal government can't make good on its promises, individual states can take matters into their own hands.

Comments

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

She's baaaaack!

[Graf Fuddington von Fuddrick]

Did little Emma’s grant application get held up?

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

"State of emergency"

"glitches in the financial aid form"

Have words just ceased to have meaning anymore?

Even Lumberg never got as far as declaring an emergency over the issues with TPS reports.

[Longtobefree]

Uh yeah, but only because, umm, he didn't have the authority.

[AT]

What is a woman?

[Longtobefree]

Proof there is a God.

[MrMxyzptlk]

You are clearly not a married man....

[Eeyore]

Or divorced.

[MrMxyzptlk]

Yeah, especially that.

[Minadin]

It could be a vengeful god with a long list of honeydo projects and no sense of a budget.

[MrMxyzptlk]

Yes. That would be the goddess who would create a woman.

[KARtikeya]

I don’t know how many times this writer has written about FAFSA, but it seems like a bizarre pet issue for a “libertarian” to have.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

It's not the issue so much as her bizarre take on how it's too hard for students to suck on that public tit.

[charliehall]

You forget that pure libertarians don't believe that there should even be public schools, and that parents should pay the entire cost of even K-12 education for their children.

Or in other words, how to reduce the birth rate in the US down to near zero.

[Don't look at me!]

Or, have a country filled with responsible parents.

[Eeyore]

"Lady liberty. Whip that titty out."

[Ersatz]

I hate to say it but i got a smile and chuckle out of that one.

[Minadin]

I think that 'issues concerning student loans and adjacent topics' is just a beat that she's been assigned because she's one of the more recently-graduated members on staff.

[KARtikeya]

Whether it’s her or her superiors, I don’t understand why it warrants the coverage it gets on here.

Shouldn’t the “libertarian” argument be it’s good that it’s broken and that’s further evidence we should get rid of it?

[Square = Circle]

Shouldn’t the “libertarian” argument be it’s good that it’s broken

No. Broken means a system that was already using resources inefficiently is now using them even more inefficiently.

and that’s further evidence we should get rid of it?

Yes.

[MrMxyzptlk]

It also helps those people understand that the government they trusted has failed them. Failed their children. Those are angry people who may be looking for a way to get even. Voting Libertarian would show them.

[MrMxyzptlk]

It shows the government is failing on its promise to the people. It's an issue most people with a 18 year old graduating high school in the next month can really deep down understand. The government form is required for not only government money but for private funds as well. No form, no college for a lot of people who now find the government to be their opponent instead of their ally.

A lot of people who may already find themselves left behind by the DNC as it runs to the far left who may not understand complex issues like inflation or the Israel conflict will understand that the government they have trusted failed them in a big way. It's exactly what we need to recruit new voters who know they aren't a bunch of theocratic fascists. People who already agree about legalizing recreational drugs, abortion rights and leaving people alone in their bedrooms. We can work on the rest.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

THE GOVERNMENT WON'T GIVE ME OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY!!!!! The only libertarian solution at this point is to call out the National Guard. They can go door to door, confiscate your cash and deliver it directly to DEI majors. We'll take care of their student loans through executive orders.

[Longtobefree]

On Tuesday, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) declared a state of emergency over persistent issues with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form.

More accurately:

On Tuesday, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) declared a state of emergency over persistent issues with the federal government.

[MrMxyzptlk]

Perhaps this will be the start of more states deciding what the feds hand out isnt worth the trouble of dealing with them.

[Don't look at me!]

Can’t the form just be printed out and filled in then dropped in the mail like the old days?

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Look at the elitist with .29 cents stamps hanging all over the refrigerator.

[MrMxyzptlk]

The online form works as well as can be expected for a government website. It's when it hits the processing be it paper or online that problems show up. I keep getting emails saying the form isn't finished and I need to sign it. Again. I've got three of them over the last month or so. So yeah, I don't know if my son can get the scholarship he gets for having good grades. That means more fucking debt.

[The Angry Hippopotamus]

Can Ms Camp please point to where in the powers enumerated to Congress and the federal government in Article I Section 8 of The Constitution of the United States of America, or in any of 27 subsequent Amendments education and/or its funding is located? I sure cannot find it.

[Square = Circle]

Commerce Clause.

[The Angry Hippopotamus]

“to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes”

Still cannot find it.

[Stuck in California]

Doesn't matter. It's there.

It's always there.

Even if you grow food on your own land for your own use, it never leaves the property much less the state or the nation, commerce clause allows it to be regulated.

Because... Reasons. FYTW or something.

[Ersatz]

An abomination of a ruling that would undo the current fabric of society if it were reversed. ... So don't hold your breath its inherent overreach will ever be corrected.

Between that and the idea of a living constitution and the US ceases to be anything worthy of the privileged dead white guys that cooked up the idea of what a country could be... that evening during an alcohol-soaked debauch at the debating society.

[MrMxyzptlk]

Right next to authorization to regulate what a person does with their own body.

[Ersatz]

...does with their own body to another humans body that just happens to be inside them at the moment...

[MrMxyzptlk]

Blah blah blah.

I get it. Woman sinned by having sex and needs to be punished by fucking up a kids life.

[Eeyore]

Most fake emergency ever.

[TJJ2000]

NOT being able to STEAL working people’s $ is an ’emergency’!!! /s

Amazing how fast criminals ?justice? perspective changes in just 50-years due to Lindon Johnson’s-[D] HEA of 1965.

Once upon a time STEALING working people’s money was considered fraud.

[BYODB]

It is strange to me that an inability to issue funds for an optional facet of life that has little bearing on their immediate well being is considered a state emergency.

While I don’t agree with the programs existence, one would have an easier time making the argument that an inability to issue WIC funds might be an emergency, but issuing grant money amounts to more of an inconvenience.

I get that it’s a huge hassle for the students that expected that money to be there, but maybe sitting out a semester and getting a job would serve them better than another semester of underwater basket weaving financed by debt. (One assumes that if they are receiving grants they are also taking out loans given the price of education in the U.S.)

In some fairness, I guess there are people in productive education programs that would also be screwed and I actually do feel bad for them. It’s been a while since I was in college, but that would have been a big nightmare for me when I was still going. I at least can concede that point, but at the same time I did leave college when I couldn’t afford it and had to return years later so my sympathy is somewhat limited.

[AT]

You forget that we live in Chicken Little society.

“I have become slightly inconvenienced and/or uncomfortable” is now “it’s the end of all things as we know it!” It’s the entitlement borne of unbridled hedonism and immediate gratification. Heck, I’ve been guilty of it myself. One time the internet went down (windstorm) right when I was in the middle of an important project – and, for whatever shameful reason, I shot the messenger in the form of the poor tech support schmo who had the miserable job of informing me that service was down and not coming back up any time soon. And upon reflection I realized that was my own maladjusted worldview that everything should be easy and convenient, and an emotional outrage the moment that it wasn’t.

We’re just so used to it, that it can very easily turn us into jerks the minute it’s taken away. (Which is why I thought it would be hilarious if, during the neonazi progressivism rallies on college campuses right now, we knocked out their wifi and shut down their 5G towers. They wouldn’t have a clue what to do then.)

As for the politicians – it’s the post-COVID fallout. Politicians have figured out that all they have to do is scare people with a threat of mild discomfort or inconvenience, that they’ll be able to declare an emergency – and they then get unlimited power. Which is, of course, the only reason they ran for office in the first place.

[MrMxyzptlk]

Yeah, because not being able to compete a year of college due to a government fuckup is no big deal.

You halfwits keep ignoring this form has been expanded in its application like the Social Security Number is now used for all manner of private sector forms. The FAFSA isn't just used for government backed loans and grants. It is used to apply for private financial aid as well. Without it filled out and submitted a lot of students who have worked hard on real degrees will be screwed over.

But yet again conservatives show their true nature. Self centered pricks.

[TJJ2000]

I fell so “screwed over” when I can’t just fill out a form and STEAL someone else’s money…… /s

Maybe, just maybe…. A checkbook is the only ‘form’ that needs filled out to pay for education in a just society. Maybe the [WE] gangsters in D.C. should learn a little integrity.

[MrMxyzptlk]

You get that there are other options to pay for college. Like scholarships granted for a variety of reasons. The FAFSA form is used by many of those scholarships to give private money to deserving students.

[TJJ2000]

LOL... Stealing someone else's money has to continue because "private money" can't just disperse without government approval?

[AT]

Oh darn, they miss a year of college. You're welcome.

[MrMxyzptlk]

The thing the "compasionate" conservatives here are purposefully ignoring is the FAFSA, like the Social Security Number, has grown from being used for only one government program. These days all of the private grants and loans require a FAFSA to be filled out. It's not just the access to taxpayer funded aid that this screw up has affected. Current students who are getting private scholarships for excellent grades are also not going to get their financial support.

The only students who will continue their education next year, unless this gets fixed, are those whose parents are paying out of pocket, those who are somehow earning enough from summer jobs plus part time work during school or those who are borrowing from private sources.

This is a real problem that real people can understand. This isn't inflation or some hard to grok political argument. This is a problem people can understand and see how the government has majorly fucked them over. It's a good issue to harp on.

[TJJ2000]

"paying out of pocket" = "a real problem" ????

And here all along; I thought the purpose of having a government was to ensure people paid for what they take (ensuring Justice).

That day the government started working for criminals instead of to prevent crime.

[MrMxyzptlk]

Have you looked at the cost of college? My son lives at home and goes to a state school that he qualified for by working hard at school and taking the right classes to earn a scholarship and automatic entry to state schools. One year of school isn't bad, around $20,000. Fortunately most of his text books are downloaded and he's LARPing as a Catholic and eats for free at the Newman Center. Their cafeteria plan is stupid expensive. Worth putting up with Catholics to not pay for.

Still, can you cut a check for $20,000 every year? That's more than what I pay on my mortgage each year. ($1,240 X 12 = $14,880). He's getting a real degree. One in Metalurgical Engineering. He's getting paid 24 bucks an hour at his summer internship. Yes, most of that will go to pay for next year but a fucking scholarship he worked his ass off to get would be fucking nice to help out.

[TJJ2000]

You mistakenly assume STEALING makes things affordable.
‘Guns’ don’t make sh*t.

You’re playing a zero-sum resources game and it is EXACTLY why it has gotten so UN-affordable in the first place … as-if the other dozen of gov-gun theft (subsidized) markets weren’t in exactly the same boat.

Might I suggest seeking corporate certification training and if one doesn’t exist it’d be a good time to start one. STEALING money isn’t an ‘education’ anyone needs to learn.

And good grief; at $20,000 per year from a class of 30 = $600,000/yr income why would anyone NOT want to provide 'education'. Supply and Demand. The natural law that can't be 'Gunned' away.

[AT]

The only students who will continue their education next year, unless this gets fixed, are those whose parents are paying out of pocket

How many continuous service providers do you pay the way colleges expect to be paid? Your internet provider, your power company, your car or home or life insurance, whatever - how many of them require an annual contract, paid up front, that you'd otherwise go without if you couldn't afford it?

Why should college be any different? Heck, why not just DO it like that? Heck, for that matter, bring it down to the individual major (or class) level. A semester of Intro to Physics will be $1200 paid in four monthly installments. Too much? Shop around for another school. Can't afford it? Work something out or cancel the service. $1200 only get you a cut rate physics professor? Pay more for higher quality.

Bring capitalism back to college (heck, all education), and not only will it be far more affordable - it'll produce a far better end product.