Subj: Don’t miss your chance to weigh in on tech + student aid
[Salutation]
I just wanted to make sure you saw this, in case you’d like to weigh in on this or forward to others you think would be interested. The short version is that the Department of Education today launched a Request for Information (RFI) – a formal way the government asks for feedback – on how the Department of Education could use write APIs to increase access to financial aid programs.
Essentially, the government is asking about the benefits and risks of allowing third parties to develop new ways to submit financial aid forms. (As an analog, think about how Turbotax or H&Rblock submits your tax information to the IRS.) In other words, what if a place like KIPP schools or OneStop could pre-fill these financial aid forms for low income students or graduates?
The types of programs this could touch, include (but isn’t limited to):
- Free Application for Student Aid (FAFSA)
- Income Based Repayment (IBR)
- Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
We’d really like to make sure student advocates, designers, developers, and anyone interested in responding knows about this RFI – to share ideas on how these open write APIs could spark innovation and better access to these programs. A blog post outlining the effort is below.
To weigh in, email APIRFI@ed.gov by June 2nd.
Thank you!
Hi folks,
The deadline for responding to Ed.'s request for information is almost here. In short, they formally asked for feedback on whether/how to integrate APIs into "higher education data and the student aid programs". In other words, this is one of the best opportunities any of us will have to drive the student aid program to modernize and open up. The potential of this is huge.
All of the background as well as anything you might need to respond can be found here.
Please - take one minute and submit a response. If you time to offer a more thorough response, your advice will literally go towards shaping Ed's response.
Thank you for helping with this. It's going to make a difference.
Help! Dept. of Ed is asking whether to use APIs. We need you (yes, YOU) to weigh in. Just email APIRFI@ed.gov with your thoughts by June 2
Should @usedgov have open read/write APIs for financial aid applications? Why? Email your thoughts to apirfi@ed.gov by June 2! Pls RT!
HELP NEEDED: The Dept. of Education has formally asked for public input on whether/how to use APIs in "higher education data and student aid programs". This is a BFD and the response window is about to close. You - yes, YOU - can help immensely in just a few minutes.
Please take a moment to help make the #studentloan system so much better! https://github.com/gbinal/Education-API-RFI#readme