Since then, the agency has issued a series of conflicting guidelines and bungled choices in ways careless or cruel, creating uncertainty and delaying the delivery of much-needed funds to students. Weeks after telling colleges they had broad discretion to determine eligibility, the Education Department issued guidance making students who desperately need help ineligible for support. A month later, it announced it would not enforce those restrictions, only to issue an emergency rule a few weeks later making its nonstatutory requirements binding.
Now, three months after colleges could start applying for this assistance, and weeks after many have already received and spent all their funds, the Education Department is still struggling to formalize restrictions and remains mired in lawsuits that have resulted in two temporary injunctions against the agency’s actions. Continue reading.