Both Congress and the Department of Education (ED) are no strangers to criticism when it comes to their decisions concerning post-secondary education. Critics span from those clamoring for student debt forgiveness to those in staunch opposition to exactly that, all the way back to their hotly-contested involvement in the cost of college at all. 

This familiarity with criticism may be what has emboldened Congress to outdo itself with its newest policy change to the ED's method of determining how families can afford college: The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

Presently, FAFSA’s calculation system puts most families in a double bind—not wealthy enough to pay the sticker price of tuition yet too wealthy to receive a discount. With the average annual cost of tuition sitting between $23,630 and $42,161 and the median income for the average American hovering around $53,000, it can be a bit difficult to decipher who exactly our government and colleges alike expect to foot that hefty bill.

Luckily, Congress has graciously implemented a policy change it has promised will streamline the entire process: simply making college unaffordable for lower to middle class households with more than one child.

Previously, FAFSA determined how much a family could contribute to their student’s tuition and equally divided that figure among a student’s siblings. Yet, that will change in the upcoming academic year. The FAFSA Simplification Act removes the existing sibling factor, drastically increasing the cost for families with more than one child. For lower to middle class students already attending college or approaching the age of college decisions, an increase in price that’s estimated to be north of $30,000 is debilitating.

With grand assurances of simplification, hopes were high that affording college might become less daunting. Cynically, the ED has achieved this goal in the most dystopian sense. For many low to middle class families with more than one child, paying for college is no longer even a concern– since the FAFSA Simplification Act renders college completely unaffordable.

It’s worth noting, however, that under FAFSA’s previous system, college was already unaffordable for many families. FAFSA expects those with a household income of about $120,000 or less to contribute around 25% of their total gross income to their child’s tuition. That percentage only climbs if a student’s parents own a home, have savings, or any other assets. Both FAFSA and universities assume not only that a student’s parents can afford to spend one-fourth of their earnings on their child’s degree, but also that they are willing to. 

The irony of labeling this change a "simplification" is clear: rather than streamlining the financial aid process, FAFSA’s policy change has only added to the difficulty of affording college. With higher education touted by our government as a means to social mobility, the removal of the sibling discount is a slap in the face, given how it exacerbates existing systemic barriers to that social mobility. For those already burdened by the rising costs of higher education, the removal of the sibling discount deals a significant blow. 

Our government's promises of equal opportunity become hollow when its own policies create barriers that prevent deserving students from pursuing their academic goals—more so when this policy change comes from an administration whose campaign trail promise to young voters was student debt forgiveness. Apparently, we didn’t read the fine print: student debt forgiveness for a select few, financed by hiking up the price for those unfortunate enough to have more than one child.

It's clear that FAFSA's so-called "simplification" comes at a steep cost for low-income families– and is nothing more than a palatable title for a regressive policy. The decision to eliminate the sibling discount represents not only a failure by Congress to address the existing barriers to accessing higher education, but also a deliberate exacerbation of them. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which only heightened financial insecurities for millions of families, the decision to remove the sibling discount is a callous move. At a time when support for higher education should be a priority, the ED's actions only serve to deepen the divide between the haves and the have-nots by disproportionately burdening those who can least afford it.

Congress must act to reform higher education, starting by reinstating the sibling discount. Fostering an accessible pathway to higher education ought to be a priority for our nation's policymakers—or, at the very least, anything other than the intentional undermining of it.