An error in how the Education Department calculates financial aid threatens to leave some U.S. students with lower subsidy amounts for their secondary schooling this fall.
The mistake, first reported in December by The Washington Post and again this week by NPR, stems from the department’s apparent failure to update a key part of its aid calculation index for inflation, which has surged by some 20% since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
At issue is the amount of a family’s income that is deemed “protected” from the overall adjusted gross income calculation. That income amount is used to determine how much financial aid a student needs.
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