<p>ACLU won’t touch it because marital status is not an unconstitutional basis of discrimination. Congress or the DOE could make changes if they could be convinced the policy is wrong.</p>
<p>The thing about the these policy considerations in FAFSA is that they are so ineffective. A young couple considering marriage or divorce is not likely to be aware that there will be financial aid considerations for their children up to 18 years later. Similarly, when deciding how to finance one’s retirement, the fact that IRA assets are shielded from FAFSA is not, I expect, widely known. The immediate tax breaks are known, but the impact on FAFSA?</p>
<p>So what you get are surprise windfalls for those that just happen to have taken certain paths over others.</p>