The federal Education Department is launching a review of the office overseeing college financial aid and the country’s nearly $2 trillion student loan portfolio.
The agency said Thursday it hired an independent consulting firm to make recommendations about how to improve the Federal Student Aid office, which has drawn bipartisan scrutiny this year amid its bungled overhaul of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.
A congressional mandate to simplify the form – relied on by millions of high school and college students annually to get federal assistance paying for college – was beset by glitches and errors (the Education Department now says forms are being processed in one to three days, and more than 10 million forms have been submitted).
