Millions of College Students Lose Out on Financial Aid Because of the FAFSA. Here Are 4 Solutions

We’ve all heard the news reports about the massive amounts of debt that college graduates leave school with. (On average, each student owes $29,400.)
Which makes the FAFSA (short for Free Application for Federal Student Aid), the form that helps students get funding for college, more important than ever. But there are major hurdles in completing it: It’s complicated, boring, and many students and their parents don’t even know about it.
Because of these reasons, millions of low- and middle-income students don’t fill it out each academic year — meaning that they’re missing out on grants, loans and work-study programs. It also might mean they skip college altogether because they think it’s unaffordable.
MORE: Delaware Pushes to Get More Low-Income Students Enrolled in Higher Education
But it’s crucial for all students to complete their FAFSA. As NPR reports, “Research shows that many of the students who don’t fill out the form would be eligible to go to college at a cost of next to nothing if they did.”
So how do we make the FAFSA more accessible?
1. Make the form shorter and simpler. Some lawmakers have proposed that the FAFSA can be condensed into two pieces of information: their family size and household income two years prior. This form will come in the handy-dandy size of a postcard.
2. Bombard them with text reminders. The sky is blue, the grass is green, teens like to text. According to NPR, University of Virginia researchers found that when high school seniors were texted about finishing their FAFSA, they were 5 to 8 percent more likely to enroll into a two-year institution compared with seniors who didn’t get the texts. Another study found that when community college freshmen received the reminders, they were 12 percent more likely to fill out the form for sophomore year.
3. Streamline FAFSA with federal tax returns. It’s an idea that would cut out the complications of filing a FAFSA altogether since a student’s financial aid eligibility would be indicated by their family’s tax return, according to the Hechinger Report. There’s also the suggestion to reserve Pell Grants for families below 150 percent of the federal poverty level (about $35,000 for a family of four), with smaller grants for families between 150 and 250 percent (almost $59,000 for a family of four), the report stated.
4. Check up on them. This is a plan proposed by the Commander in Chief himself. President Obama wants to launch an online FAFSA completion tool that helps high schools verify whether students have completed the form or not (and then nudge them to finish it). There’s already a similar tool, where anyone can see the overall rates of FAFSA completion at various high schools nationwide.
DON’T MISS: Ask the Experts: How Can We Keep From Drowning in College Debt?

Here’s How High-Speed Rail Is Inching Closer to Becoming a Reality In California

High-speed rails: We’ve seen animations of what they might look like, and heard politicians talk about them. What we have yet to see is an actual high-speed train flying along the rails. But that may change soon enough in California.
Although support at the federal level for funding has died down, according to City Lab, the state has been able to find money for the new venture through cap-and-trade revenue.
Cap-and-trade, which basically taxes big business for polluting the environment, could bring in between $3 and $5 billion dollars every year towards the transportation project. This is a huge boon, not only because it’s steady, annual income, but also because it allows for the project to take out larger loans — whether they be from the federal government or private investors.
In a blog post about California’s high speed rail, Robert Cruickshank said, “this is perhaps the best news California HSR [high-speed rail] has had in over five years.”
Although a debate on the building of a high-speed rail continues, two things are for certain: California is now a lot closer to having the transportation of the future — and it’s all thanks to a program that promotes the environment.
MORE: Could Los Angeles Become The Next Pedestrian-Friendly City?

The Competition for Disaster Relief Funds Heats Up

When you think of disaster relief, the words that probably come to mind are EMTs and paramedics, FEMA, and the Red Cross.
But for President Obama, it’s competition, resiliency, and natural disasters. These words — together — form his new plan to help with disaster relief.
While that may sound a bit odd, it encourages state and local governments to compete for natural disaster relief funds from the federal government. With $1 billion at stake, Obama challenged communities to create sustainable plans to rebuild and reboot their communities.
With the National Climate Assessment’s report released last month detailing the imminence of climate change, Obama’s plan also comes with the hope of finding ways to combat it. Therefore, competing states should come up with proposals that involve innovative local resilience projects, policy changes, and adaptive plans for extreme weather and climate change.
State and local communities that were declared natural disaster areas between 2011 and 2013 will be eligible for $820 million worth of grants. States hit by Hurricane Sandy will have the opportunity to compete for an additional $180 million. Applicants are required to detail how the proposed action and the disaster are linked.
Winners will receive cash through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Block Grant. Already, a few winners have been named for the Hurricane Sandy competition. Here, a few of the approved projects.
The Big U in New York will protect Manhattan (West 57th Street to The Battery to East 42nd Street) from floods and storm water through the creation of a protective system. This part of the city is low-lying and culturally important, and the project will have environmental and social benefits as well.
Another is the New Meadowlands: Productive City and Regional Park, which will combine transportation, ecology, and development to connect and rebuild the swampy area between New Jersey and New York.
The Jersey Shore will also receive some funding with a focus on repairing the beaches and rejuvenating the communities in the area.
For a listing and description of the rest of the approved projects, click here.
With all of the natural disasters that have occurred recently, President Obama’s competition will hopefully encourage states and local governments to plan and prepare to prevent such devastating effects from occurring in the future — or at least, lessen their impact.
MORE: A National Effort to Boost Local Resources