Drew Dixon
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon hasn’t seemed to be getting enough of Florida these days. And she’ll be taking part in an event in Broward County on Wednesday.
McMahon will be in the Fort Lauderdale metropolitan area to conduct some initial testing on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) event. She’ll be outlining the Department of Education’s launch of the FAFSA form for applying for funding and was designed by President Donald Trump’s administration.
It’s billed as being the earliest launch in the program’s history. The general public will have access to the forms within weeks in a format that is touted as having “user-friendly features.”
FAFSA is one of the key elements for students to complete to help them get federal financial aid. The funding is for colleges and career schools. That funding could include grants, scholarships, work-study funding and student loans. Students must apply for the aid every year.
McMahon and the Trump administration are claiming that they’ve made substantial improvements in the process since the end of President Joe Biden’s administration.
A press release in advance of McMahon’s visit on Wednesday said it could take students and families up to three days to complete the application process previously. Now that time is reduced to minutes, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Education.
The release also claims no single family had completed the form a year ago, while the Department of Education has about 1,000 families ready to fill it out on Wednesday.
The release also states that the Biden administration did not prioritize fraud prevention controls during student loan relief programs. McMahon’s office claims fraud prevention controls have been reimplemented to protect the sensitive information of students and families.
McMahon was on the opposite side of Florida last week. She was in Tampa last Wednesday with Sen. Ashley Moody, who was highlighting the expansion of school choice for parents under the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” that Moody voted in favor of last month.
