BUZZ
Key Takeaways
- Beginning this week, the U.S. Department of Education will warn students about colleges whose graduates earn less than high school graduates through the FAFSA process.
- The warning provides financial data about selected colleges, aiming to enhance transparency and help students make informed decisions regarding their education.
- Over 2% of undergraduates attend schools with lower average earnings than high school graduates, yet these institutions still receive significant federal aid.
As part of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid process, the U.S. Department of Education will warn first-year undergraduate students if a school has low graduate earnings beginning this week.
As students complete the application and indicate the colleges they are considering, the form will display financial data for each school they select, according to a Monday news release from the department.
It will issue a “lower earnings” warning if a school’s graduates earn less on average than high school graduates.
“The indicator uses publicly available data to highlight earnings outcomes at a critical moment in the college decision-making process,” the release states.
Students can see additional program-specific data through the College Scorecard, an Education Department tool that helps students compare colleges.
The release notes that more than two percent of undergraduates nationwide attend colleges whose graduates earn less, on average, than people with only a high school diploma. Yet these schools still receive over $2 billion in federal student aid each year.
“More than half of all Americans now say a college degree is not worth the price, and total outstanding student loan debt is approaching $1.7 trillion. Families deserve a clearer picture of how postsecondary education connects to real-world earnings, and this new indicator will provide that transparency,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said.
“Not only will this new FAFSA feature make public earnings data more accessible, but it will empower prospective students to make data-driven decisions before they are saddled with debt,” she said.
Federal Student Aid also released an announcement about the new earnings indicator, clarifying that it “should not be interpreted as the Department passing normative judgment on what institutions are worthy of attendance, or the expected return on investment of attending a particular institution.”
The FAFSA update comes as the Trump administration moves forward in its effort to effectively dismantle the Education Department.
The administration is transferring many of the department’s responsibilities to other federal agencies, including the departments of Labor, Interior, Health and Human Services, and State, The College Fix recently reported.
These agreements shift duties such as Title I funding oversight and foreign-language-studies programs out of the Education Department. However, civil rights work and student aid programs remain there for now.
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