Louisiana’s students are missing out on tens of millions of dollars in federal financial aid that could help them gain skills training or college degrees after high school, says the Louisiana Department of Education in a report issued today.
The problem is that only 44% of Louisiana’s public high school seniors fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA. That application is used to determine if students are eligible for Pell grants, work study programs, federal student loans and other types of aid for college and technical training.
At a joint meeting this morning of the Board of Regents and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, Louisiana Education Secretary John White said Louisiana students give up at least an estimated $54 million in financial aid each year because they’re not filling out the FAFSA application.
“This is free money. This is life opportunity,” he said.
White said he’ll be talking to local school boards, school superintendents and other education leaders about ways to improve the application rate.
Louisiana’s completion rate of the form falls well below the national average of 55%. The low number of applications comes in a state that is among the poorest in the nation, and where a larger percentage of students likely would be eligible for financial aid.
The education department said if Louisiana’s application rate reached the national average, 4,400 more students a year would receive federal student aid totaling $54 million to pay for technical training and college degree programs.
“It is unacceptable that as a state our numbers are far below the national average,” F. King Alexander, LSU president, said in a statement. “More importantly, however, leaving $54 million on the federal table that will help our students is a problem we all must unite to rectify.” See the complete report.
