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FIRST ON FOX: Iowa GOP Sen. Joni Ernst has penned a bipartisan letter with fellow senators to the Biden administration expressing concern that farmers and their families are being subjected to important monetary hurt by a prolonged delay in updating the method of making use of for school monetary support.
“We write to express continued concern with the impact the delayed Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) rollout will have for students and families, in particular those from family farm and small business backgrounds,” Ernst and 13 different senators, together with Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, wrote to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona this week.
“The FAFSA Simplification Act was signed into law on December 27, 2020, and yet the Department of Education (Ed) released an incomplete and confusing ‘soft launch’ of the new form exactly three months delayed from the typical October 1 release date,” the letter continued. “In addition, Ed announced on January 30, Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) would not be sent to colleges and universities until early March. This creates an untenable timeline for students to review aid offers and compare their school options, with schools already pushing aid offers back to late April or early May.”
The senators wrote that Question 22 on the FAFSA type, associated to scholar belongings, requires “each student report the net worth of their family’s businesses or for-profit agricultural operations,” which the senators say doesn’t bear in mind the monetary complexities of working a farm.
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President Biden and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa (Getty Images)
“This question fundamentally misunderstands how farm families operate, as the stream of revenue for crops and livestock varies significantly year-over-year, and assets cannot be cashed out to support a loan in the same capacity as traditional investments,” the letter states.
“As defined by Ed, these reported assets may include, ‘fair market value of land, buildings, livestock, unharvested crops, and machinery.’ These assets can range well into the millions of dollars, with the price of a combine harvester alone often exceeding $400,000. This, in combination with projected declines in revenue for nearly every agricultural sector for 2023 harvest, indicates Ed lacked critical insight needed to develop this asset reporting requirement.”
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Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, kicks off her Roast and Ride occasion in Des Moines, Iowa, on June 3, 2023. The annual occasion helps to boost cash for veteran charities and spotlight Republican candidates and platforms. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The senators say that a farming household with a $60,000 annual earnings and $1 million in farming belongings was beforehand paying $7,626 yearly towards their little one’s tuition and that below the brand new method, that similar household must pay as much as $41,056.
“In this economy, asking Iowa farm families to pay five times more to send their kids to college is a nonstarter,” Ernst instructed Fox News Digital.
“As a farm kid myself and a recipient of a Pell Grant, I understand how critical federal student aid can be for Iowans. That’s why I’m leading the charge to force Biden’s Department of Ed to reevaluate their FAFSA form and ensure folks of all backgrounds can pursue higher education if they choose to do so. Rural students will not be pushed to the side and ignored under my watch.”
The letter asks who the Department of Education consulted within the farming group in regards to the regulation and whether or not a dialogue came about about how it might influence families.
“How should families reasonably calculate the value of their family farm holdings i.e., recent appraisals, commensurate value?” the senators requested. “Given that Ed has not provided guidance on a number of important questions involving farm assets.”
The senators additionally requested the Department of Education if it’s going to “conduct an in-depth impact analysis of data throughout the 2024-2025 application process to understand the year-over-year impact of transitioning from the EFC formula to SAI formula?”
Ernst was joined on the letter by Sens. John Tester, D-Mont.; Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; Pete Ricketts, R-Neb.; Thom Tillis, R-N.C.; James Risch, R-Idaho; Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss.; Deb Fisher, R-Neb.; Roger Marshall, R-Kan.; Roger Wicker, R-Miss.; Mike Crapo, R-Idaho; John Boozman, R-Ark.; Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.; and John Hoeven, R-N.D.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona speaks throughout an interview with The Associated Press in his workplace on the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
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Earlier this month, Ernst and Grassley launched a factsheet in a press launch that defined how the Education Department’s delayed rollout of the streamlined FAFSA system has made it tougher for college kids to use to highschool and could ship the monetary contributions of farming families “skyrocketing.”
“Prospective college students and their families ought to have ready access to their financial aid offerings. But this year’s FAFSA launch has created more headaches than it’s helped,” Grassley stated. “Senator Ernst and I will continue working with the Department of Education to iron out wrinkles in the new FAFSA, so that when the time comes for young Iowans to choose their college, they’ll have the financial information they need.”
The Department of Education didn’t reply to a request for remark from Fox News Digital.
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