Senate committee advances bill to standardize financial aid offers after GAO and advocates cite confusion

Senate File 2,932, introduced by Senator Uma Rabain, would require the Office of Higher Education (OHE) to work with a stakeholder group to develop a standardized financial aid offer form to make college costs and the net price easier for students and families to compare.

"Understanding financial aid is one of the biggest challenges for students and families navigating higher education," Sen. Rabain said, citing a 2022 Government Accountability Office report that found most colleges did not follow best practices for clear financial aid offers. The bill sets required contents for the form, including direct costs (tuition and institution-sponsored housing), indirect costs (books, transportation, off-campus housing estimates), grants and scholarships, the net price (cost minus gift aid), loans, dependent-care and supplemental cost adjustments, and instructions for accepting or declining offers.

Multiple witnesses urged passage. Rachel Fishman, director of the higher education program at New America, said voluntary efforts had failed and that state action was necessary. "Only the institutions with the best of intentions will sign up" for voluntary standards, she said. Edward Conroy, a former financial aid administrator, argued a standardized, user-tested form would remove incentives for institutions to use aid offers as marketing tools and would help students compare true prices.

Students and advocates described real effects. Max Berg, a University of Minnesota freshman, said he believed he had a full-ride scholarship only to discover mid-year that work-study eligibility affected his billing, leaving him with unexpected charges. Eleanor Anderson and John Runigan, first-generation students, said inconsistent formats and omissions in award letters left them unsure which offer would be affordable.

Wendy Robinson, assistant commissioner at OHE, testified about implementation and timelines; she recommended building stakeholder input cycles and said moving the implementation timeline later (the bill was amended to target the 2028-29 academic year for initial use) would help institutions and vendors adopt the form. The committee adopted the author's A-1 amendment and laid Senate File 2,932 over as amended.

Outlook: sponsors and advocates urged the committee to continue stakeholder work with institutions, the student loan advocate, counseling staff and financial aid administrators. A fiscal note was requested from Commerce, Minnesota State, OHE and the University of Minnesota.