Senate Bill 54 (FAFSA Awards), authored by Sen. Jean Leising (R-Oldenburg), headed into conference committee this week with House and Senate lawmakers agreeing that increasing the percentage of Hoosier high school students completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) was important but displaying distinctly different perspectives on the best way to achieve this goal. As passed by the Senate, SB 54 made completing the FAFSA the default expectation for Indiana high school seniors, albeit with multiple opt-out options. The House took an incentive-only approach by offering grants to schools that improved their FAFSA completion rate, beginning in 2022-23 when the FAFSA will be dramatically simplified due to recent action by Congress.

In conference committee on Wednesday, Sen. Leising proposed melding the House and Senate  approaches with both the expectation and the incentive taking effect in 2022-23. To the outside observer, this would seem to be a reasonable compromise. However, as we head into the final week of session, it’s unclear if either side will soften its position with Senate budget hawks resisting a state fiscal impact because “counselors and principals are unwilling to do their jobs” and the House maintaining its recent (but inconsistent) “anti-mandate” stance.

The Chamber is continuing to engage with lawmakers on both sides to avoid a frustrating outcome in which nothing happens – with Indiana students, and our state’s workforce, paying the price for the Legislature’s failure to act.

Increasing FAFSA completion – a key education attainment metric in which Indiana already lags behind its Midwestern peers and has further declined during the pandemic – is a Chamber priority because we see it as a key lever for boosting workforce development and breaking the cycle of generational poverty. Completing the FAFSA qualifies students for a variety of merit- and need-based financial aid opportunities that enable Hoosiers to pursue postsecondary degrees and workforce credentials that produce the highly skilled workers Indiana employers and our state economy needs to thrive.

Resource: Jason Bearce at (317) 264-6880 or email: jbearce@indianachamber.com