Let’s strip away the niceties – our American Education Department is failing spectacularly, yet this isn’t receiving the national coverage it deserves. Why? Because mainstream media is choosing to lock away the shocking mismanagement of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) website overhaul.
Now hear this – high school students can’t commit to their dream colleges because of serious computer glitches plaguing our Education Department’s financial aid system. Consider Jojo Henderson, an 18-year-old senior from Pittsburg, Texas who can’t finalize his move to college because the federal financial aid he’s relying on is up in the air. He’s frustrated, obviously, stating how he did everything right only to be held back by a lagging government.
Is this just an unfortunate hiccup? No, it’s a glaring display of bureaucratic ineptitude. Sitting right in the middle of this mess, yet seemingly unconcerned, is Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. See, Cardona seems more occupied with pushing skewed gender policies than making sure students can access the financial aid they require.
Imagine if this blunder had occurred under the Trump administration and while Betsy DeVos was steering the Department of Education. The media would be in an uproar and the story would be plastered all over national headlines. But Cardona, hiding behind the spectacle of Alejandro Mayorkas and Pete Buttigieg, gets away scot-free.
Now, let’s talk about the on-air interview by CBS’s Meg Oliver. She focused on students, like Jojo Henderson and New Jersey high school senior Jaelyn James, stuck in a frustrating limbo. Neither could confirm their college plans because their FAFSA paperwork had arrived late or hadn’t arrived at all. This vital process for securing financial aid for college has been botched, with forms going out three months late, and some students waiting nearly five months for responses.
And what sage advice is being offered to our devastated students? They’re being told – Don’t give up. Ask for extensions for deposits. But refusing to go is not an option.
The tragedy – this disaster is still unspooling with no end in sight. This isn’t a disaster movie script – it’s real life, and the protagonists are our nation’s youth.
In conclusion, our Education Department’s mishandling of the FAFSA situation is a security breach in our future generation’s education firewall. Our media’s refusal to shine a critical spotlight on Secretary Cardona’s disastrous leadership is shields those responsible for this fiasco from deserved scrutiny. Let’s not blind ourselves to the repercussions – our children’s futures hang in the balance. As the safeguard to our young scholars, Cardona and his Department owe it to the American youth to make this right. Anything less is unacceptable.
