(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Joni Ernst is joining other Republicans in the U-S Senate who’re calling for an investigation of how the Biden Administration has handled changes in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid — called FAFSA. “The Department of Education wasted time on a lot of socialist schemes and taxpayer funded handouts,” Ernst says. “What we need is transparency for Iowa families and that’s why I’m demanding an investigation.”

An estimated 17 million college-bound students who filled out FAFSA forms will have to wait for financial aid offers from schools. That’s because the data in those forms is normally delivered to colleges and universities in the late fall or early winter, but this year’s delivery is now expected in March. It means students likely won’t find out until April how much federal financial aid they qualify for and how much their college of choice might offer in scholarships.  “The Biden Department of Education’s botched roll out forced uncertainty this school year,” Ernst says.

A federal law passed in late 2020 called for simplifying the FAFSA form. Ernst says it has led to an unfair calculation of a farm family’s ability to come up with the money to pay for a child’s college education.  “Their folks have farm ground, they have equipment, so they’re asset rich, but they are cash poor,” Ernst said, “and these ag families should not be forced to sell their farm so that their children can go to college.”

Ernst says the Biden Administration should have taken action to change the income, asset and debt calculator in the FAFSA for farm families. Last March,, Ernst sent the U-S Education Secretary a letter, saying the Iowa College Aid Commission had calculated that students from some farm families will see a significant drop in the amount of federal aid they may receive. Last April, Ernst co-sponsored a bill that would have addressed the issue.