[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] the cynic in me to help education labor and pensions will please come at order. Im usually on time, especially for an education hearing and excuse me for being late. This is the first in his his appearance as we finished our consideration of proposals to reauthorize the Higher Education act. Today we look at ways to simplify the free application for student aid, or fafsa, to make it easier for students to apply for federal Financial Aid. Senator murray and i will each have an Opening Statement and then well introduce the witnesses, and after your testimony senators will have five minutes of questions. A lot going on today so senators may be coming and going because of the tax bill. Nearly four years ago, in a hearing before this committee, an unusual thing happened. For witnesses from diverse backgrounds agreed that almost all of the 108 questions on the free application for federal student aid, or fafsa, are unnecessary. The fafsa is a government for him 20 million still out every year in order to qualify for the 140 million in federal aid that helps nearly 29 students attend 6000 colleges and universities. Senator bennet and i spent a lot of time holding this up in the air to let people, we like people of all these questions, even though most people felt it out online. Theyre still the same number of questions. At the end of the ring i asked the witness if they could summarize their proposal to simplify the fafsa in four separate letters to us. They said they could do it together with one letter. Senator bennet and i then had the same reaction. If theres that much consensus on how to make it easier for nearly 20 million families to apply for federal aid, we asked, why dont we actually do it . That was four years ago. Senator bennet and i are about to turn one of eight questions into two. On a postcard that dr. Scottclayton who with you today recommended in her testimony four years ago. Lets take a moment to talk about why simplifying the fafsa is important. First, nearly 29 students fill out this one every year. Which means they receive a federal grant or loan as a freshman you will have to fill it out again to continue to receive your 84 sophomore year and beyond. What experience Financial Aid officers tell us it doesnt take long to complete, weve heard over and over again from parents, students and Higher Education officials how difficult it is the first time. Second, this complexity frustrates the goal of the pell grant which is not low income Students Attend College because it discourages them from applying for aid. I know intimacy where two years of post secondary education is now free, the complexity of te fafsa is the single biggest impediment to more students taking advantage of what we call tennessee promise. The former president of southwest tennessee committed the college in memphis told me he believes he loses 1500 students each semester because of the complexity of the form. Third, this complexity wastes time and money that could be better spent helping students choose the right college or major or develop Financial Literacy skills so they can understand the impacts of taking out student loans. After four years of discussion over how to stop by the fafsa, it is time to come to a result. Our first order of business after the first of the year will be to mark up a reauthorization in the Higher Education act. Mice and books read be to maket simpler and easier for students to apply for federal aid and to pay their loans back. And to cut through the jungle of red tape that federal law and regulations imposes on college administers can spend the time and money instead for the benefit of student with a number of bipartisan proposals before the committee that seek to do those things. After arguing for years ago, senator bennet and i along with senators murr, isakson, senator king and barker introduced our legislation to cut the 108 fafsa questions down to two questions. We have listened to students, Financial Aid officers and College President s. Weve done this in a bipartisan way for four years. We will hear some of those good ideas today, for example, senator murray has a bill to simplify the fafsa process for homeless students and students without parents. We worked with the Obama Administration to allow students to fill out the fafsa with their Tax Information from two years before they enroll in college instead of one so they can file in the fall rather than having to wait until the spring. The result of this is senator bennet and by completing work on a bill that would reduce the fafsa from 108 questions to as few as 15, and no more than 25 questions, depending on how you answer questions about your family. We will do this principally by taking the Tax Information the americans, that american scale to the federal government and incorporating that Tax Information into the fafsa. Over and over again across tennessee ive been asked if ive already given my Tax Information to the federal government, why do i have to give it again for the fafsa . My answer is that you shouldnt have to. Once is enough. Our proposal will tell students the amount of their pell grant, money they dont have to pay back, before the applied to college instead of after theyve already been accepted to schools. I have a long perspective on this. This, as Education Sector oversaw the implementation of the first fafsa in january 1993 short before i left office. While the fafsa is a complex form today, it was actually created then to reduce the burden on students by combining federalstate and institutional based Financial Aid applications into one single application. The first fafsa had four pages of questions, and 12 pages of directions. Todays fafsa is ten pages with directions included on the form plus an additional 66 pages of instructions. Now 25 years later i sit is chairman of the Senate Education committee trying to update the Higher Education act, and once again simplify how students apply for federal Financial Aid. Over the next couple of months i want our committee to listen to the experts to discuss different proposals and write and pass a final bill. 255 years after the first fafsa and four years after the first hearing, it is time to bring this discussion to a result. We should be able to say to the nearly 20 million families develop the fafsa instead of entering 108 questions, you will have to answer about 1525. Once is enough to give your basic information about family, size and income to the federal government. Instead of waiting until youre been admitted to college we will tell you about your pell grant while you are still shopping around for schools. Senator murray. Thank you very mu ch, mr. Chairman. And i want to thank all of our witnesses for being here today. I look forward to hearing from all of you about your expenses with the preapplication for the fafsa form and your thoughts on how we can best improve access to federal Financial Aid. However, navigating fafsa is just one of the many challenges todays students are facing and for them these issues dont come up one at a time. They are all wrapped together to College Students are taking on mountains of debt and are concerned about finding a job after school, whether the school or program is safe, whether its preparing them for the workforce and disrespected by employers and a lot more. So in order to help our students we have to make sure were trying to solve the big problem along with a smaller ones impacting students and families but we need to tackle the issues that impact College Students the most, and i believe on this committee that is done so much good Work Together that we can do that. Thats what its a critical we take a comprehensive approach to update our nations Higher Education act. Chairman alexander and i have heard concerns expressed that pursuing a comprehensive approach to reauthorize this law would be too difficult. Well, in these partisan times will notably get done and thats a weird by the way before we did no child left behind. People said it was too toxic to judge and it would never be over the past a true reauthorization. They said we should just focus on low hanging fruit and leave the rest for another time, another congress. Thankfully chairman alexander and i push those naysayers aside. We got to work and we got it done. So im hopeful and confident we can Work Together on a comprehensive approach to reauthorizing the Higher Education act the same way. There is simply too many important issues facing students and working families when it comes to accessing affordable, highquality education. We got to take a holistic approach to Higher Education reform to build the systems that help them of students. We can Work Together to address issues like fafsa simplification, at an important that is, but we must at the same time work to tackle the biggest problem is critical law aims to address. Because i believe in order to truly solve the challenges students face, we have to address for major issues. The rising cost of college, schools and programs that are not held accountable for Student Success, terriers for working families, students of color and firstgeneration students to attend college, and ongoing threats to learning in a safe environment. I want to go into each of those because theyre all important. First, we got to address the skyrocketing cost of college and find ways for more students to be able to graduate without debt. And we must consider the full cost of College Beyond just tuition, food, transportation, housing, textbooks, childcare. Secondly, we need to make sure colleges and workforce Training Programs are producing what outcomes for students and preparing them for the jobs of tomorrow and are being held accountable when that isnt the case. And that has to include providing students with the information they need to make smart choices about their future before they enroll in classes with an expensive price tag. Third, we need to improve historically underrepresented students ability to access and succeed in the Higher Education. And finally we need to ensure every student has the ability to learn and a safe environment, free from discrimination and violence. And you must include doing more to combat the National Epidemic of Campus Sexual Assault and beginning to address dangers hazing practices. Now of course simplifying the fafsa should be part of our comprehensive reauthorization. Eifert from people across my state how complicated and difficult filling out the application can be, and i know everyone has heard the same thing. Simplify fafsa would help ease the burden of college cost for students who may be leaving money on the table. And by addressing concerns of students from nontraditional backgrounds including homeless and foster student we can open the doors of opportunity to students who otherwise might not get the Financial Aid they need. And all the hurdles of Financial Aid, hickory requirements, verification, refining the form feature can create real barriers for students who deserve our help. Its clear simplifying fafsa would help students. It alone cannot solve the challenges of families across the country faced in addressing and affording Higher Education. So this is a good first step and i hope we can continue this conversation with a comprehensive solution in mind and at hearings on a variety of issues impacting students and their families. This committee has a record of Bipartisan Solutions to big, complex problems and im confident we can find a bipartisan path forward to tackle all these issues head on. Our students are counting on it. Before a close, chairman alexander, i want to make one final point. Its important i need to make you people get too deep into Higher Education issues. One of the largest hurdles to passing any new bipartisan education law is how secretary devos and the department of education are today currently picking and choosing when to follow laws written by this committee and passed by the congress. Right now secretary devos and her department are blatantly violating the current k12 law that we just updated two years ago. They wont follow the very statuary language this committee settled on review and i worked together on every Student Succeeds act. We reached an agreement to give states flexibility while including some of the requirements for stays in the statute. The requirements are in black and white. They are in the law and have nothing to do with regulation. And i am deeply troubled that violations of the law are being ignored by the department of education. I want to give you an example the law requires in statute that states identify three distinct categories of school term improvement. Bottom 5 schools, all schools where one subgroup is consistently underperforming, and schools with any subgroup is performing at poorly at the bottom 5 . Plans are now being approved that pilot is and that more examples i would be happy to talk through but chairman alexander, if the department is to the ignoring the agreement that we made in law and choosing to implement whatever it feels like, which i believe that art and approval estate plan so far, then this community to hear from the secretary directly about how she intends to follow the laws that Congress Agrees to, especially as we begin our to reauthorize it im confident we can address this issue and hope we can hear from the the depars and i hope we can begin addressing the critically important issues in Higher Education. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator murray. For both your comments on both subjects, of course. I look forward to talking to you about the matter going on [inaudible] prohibit a secretary from doing certain things. As far as Higher Education, i agree with what you said. Im eager to sit down and visit with you and get started on reauthorizing the Higher Education act. Those no reason why we cant do that together we figured out how this committee to tackle big issues and, at lots of points of views and come up with the of people appreciate it when we do so the sooner we get going on that, the better. And my hope would be that we could take a bipartisan work that weve done over the last three or four years really and turn it into our result in the First Quarter of next year and i look forward to working with you on that. Im pleased to welcome our witnesses to todays hearing, focus on simplifying the fafsa. I like to ask introduce the first witness, dr. Mccallin. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And i would like to thank you and Ranking Member murray for focusing our attention on this important issue. Mr. Chairman, on what to thank you for your partnership over these four years on fafsa. I know our first witness agrees with what were trying to do. This morning its my pleasure to introduce dr. Nancy mccallin from my home state of colorado. For the last 13 years dr. Mccallin has served as president of the Colorado Community college system, the largest system in the state to educate one out of every three of our undergraduate students. During her tenure at colorados comedic host system is not Ambitious Initiative to increase Student Success and make college more affordable to cut her leadership the system revamp its program and streamline the curriculum cisterns can graduate faster and with less debt. She increased transfer agreements with fouryear colleges similar students can pursue fouryear degrees and she expanded concurrent enrollment for High School Students by 200 saving our students and families roughly 90 90 million in tuin cost. Her leadership in Higher Education is just the latest chapter in her career of public service. Recent she served in the administration of governor bill owens and was chief economist for the colorado legislature. Dr. Mccallin announced her retirement by thanking her for her service to colorado for making the time to join us this morning. We look forward to her testimony. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator, bennet. I now recognize senator kaine to introduce ms. Williams. I get a look at all to the chair and ranking. True and honored today to introduce one of our witnesses, elaine williams, who is a richmond are just like me but it should because of a really inspirational work as a community advocate. Ms. Williams is a recent graduate of the virginia college, University School of social work at ive got both grads and School Social worker rats on my staff. Its a Wonderful Program and she currently works as a diversion specialist with the ywca, helping people avoid homelessness. She is passionate