Texas Democrats on Monday asked colleges in the state to ensure financial aid to students of migrants because of an error in a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form.
In Texas, about one in four children has at least one parent who is not a U.S. citizen, according to the Center for Public Policy Priorities. Students must be U.S. citizens or have legal immigration status to apply for federal financial aid.
An error in the revamped FAFSA, which launched earlier this year, has affected many immigrant families by preventing parents without Social Security numbers from adding their financial information. Parents without Social Security numbers have to enter their financial information manually, while others can have the IRS pull their information directly from their tax filings.
In an effort to acknowledge the technical difficulty, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board extended the state priority deadline to submit the FAFSA to April 15.
On Monday, in a signed open letter to colleges, Texas Democrats asked the state's colleges to track how much money went to students whose parents did not have Social Security numbers last year, and to ensure a similar amount remains available until June 1 or until the federal government confirms it has forwarded to the colleges all the financial aid records they have from students affected by the error.
"Unless prompt and decisive action is taken, tens of thousands of Texas students face losing critical financial aid that could make the difference between whether or not they are able to attend college," said the letter, which was spearheaded by Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett. "Accordingly, we, the undersigned Members of Congress, are requesting your institution track the amount of financial aid that went to similarly situated students last year to ensure it remains available."
The letter said that adjusting the deadline is not enough, pointing out that Texas colleges offer aid on a first-come, first-served basis, which means they could run out of funds before many immigrant students can be considered to receive financial aid.
"Adjusting priority deadline policy alone is not sufficient," the letter said. "An institution which only adjusts its deadline policy may still find that it has awarded all of its available funds before the institution even receives the [Social Security Number]-burdened students' [financial aid records].
"We are greatly troubled about the disparate discriminatory impact this will have on thousands of Texas students seeking financial benefit being foreclosed to them due to nothing other than the immigration status of their contributor."
Last month, the U.S. Department of Education announced a technical update that allowed students with parents without Social Security numbers to submit the form, but in the same announcement, it said two more bugs were affecting the same group of students.
In a statement emailed to Newsweek, Crockett reiterated the importance that no student gets left behind in the financial aid process.
"It's unacceptable that eligible students are being left behind in the financial aid process due to delays in resolving this issue," Congresswoman Crockett said. "We urge universities to join us in assisting these students to access the same opportunities for college funding as their peers."
The letter, signed by 10 of the 13 Texas Democrats in Congress, comes after the state's anti-DEI law, or SB 17, was signed last year, banning public colleges and universities from maintaining DEI offices, holding mandatory DEI training and having departments focused on "promoting differential treatment" based on race, sex or ethnicity.
In an effort comply with the law, the University of Texas at Austin sent layoff notices to an estimated 60 staff members who previously worked in diversity, equity and inclusion roles, according to the Texas NAACP and the Texas Conference of American Association of University Professors.
Update 4/9/24, 9:30 a.m. ET: This article was updated with a quote from Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett.
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