One Thing Democrats And Republicans Must Agree On

There are a few things so obvious that Republicans and Democrats have to agree on them.  One of them is the insane complexity of applying for financial aid for college.  A bipartisan bill has been introduced in Congress to simplify the process.  Susan Dynarski and Judith Scott Clayton explain the dire need for this:

Senators Lamar Alexander and Michael Bennet, in a New York Times Op-Ed on Thursday, said they were introducing legislation that would significantly simplify the process of applying for aid for college. The legislation would slice the Fafsa to just two questions: family size and income.

As economists, we have worked on this topic for years. The senators cite our research in their Op-Ed, and the proposed legislation closely hews to a proposal we wrote in 2007. Recent research provides strong evidence that the complicated aid application process discourages people from applying for aid and going to college.

Hopefully, the least productive Congress in memory can see their way to enacting this common sense legislation.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.