I don’t think families in this income range will be harmed much by the elimination of the halving the EFC for having two in college. The EFC may go from $80k to $40k under the current formula, but that isn’t going to get the student a Pell grant, a subsidized loan, or anything else from the federal government. It MAY be viewed as worthy of need based aid from a few schools, but not many, and those schools can adjust their formulas to consider siblings in school.
There just aren’t that many schools giving need based aid to students with an EFC of $40k without requiring CSS.
One piece of advice given on CC is not to do anything you wouldn’t do anyway (like paying off a mortgage) just to get financial aid. It usually doesn’t work out. Buy or sell a property because that makes sense for your financial picture, but don’t do it because there might be financial aid some time in the future.
Really do look at the ‘merit’ colleges. You kids will do great at a number of schools, so find one (or two) that are good fits and focus on that merit money.