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Washington (AP)

Obama moves to simplify FAFSA form

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The Obama administration plans to simplify the federal college aid form, which at 153 questions drives millions of families to give up before they finish it.

President Barack Obama wants to make the form much more user-friendly as part of a sweeping plan to put higher education within reach of more students.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who planned to announce the changes on Wednesday afternoon at the White House, said the goal is to boost college enrollment among low- and middle-income students.

"We have to educate our way to a better economy," Duncan said in a statement.

The proposed change comes as demand for aid is rising. Last year, after the recession had begun, the number of applications rose by 12 percent to more than 16 million, according to the Education Department. Detailed estimates are not yet available for last year, but of all full-time college undergraduates in 2007, 58 percent applied for aid, and 47 percent received it.

Still, many who are eligible do not apply. The American Council on Education, in a 2004 report, estimated that 1.5 million students probably would have been awarded Pell Grants had they applied for them. That was up from 850,000 such cases in 2000.

Students and their families must fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, to get any type of federal aid or loan. The form also is used for state and college aid programs.

The administration is taking three steps to simplify the form, which some consider more complicated than a tax return:

-Shorten and streamline the online application, reducing the number of screens by about two-thirds.

-Create a Web application to use tax data families have already submitted to the IRS, helping to eliminate confusion in answering questions.

-Ask Congress to pass legislation that removes more than half of the financial questions on the form.

The proposal drew warm responses from two of the congressional committee chairmen who will help decide its fate, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

The new college aid form likely will become part of a larger student aid bill centered on Obama's plan to end a massive program of government-subsidized college loans.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)