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royal bull casino Turns Out Sometimes the Government Can Get Things Right
The Biden administration unveiled its student loan forgiveness application online a week ago. Twitter lit up with joyful posts about debt reliefroyal bull casino, as well as about the surprisingly easy process.
“Incredible. Took about 120 seconds.”
“Super easy and painless. I feel so hopeful!”
Twenty-two million people submitted applications during the first week the website was open, eight million of them over the first weekend, a startling contrast to the six people (not six million, nor 6,000 — just six) who successfully negotiated the Obamacare website on the day of its launch in 2013. As professors of public policy, we have shared our research on how administrative burdens make vital public services harder to access with the Biden administration, and we spoke with Department of Education officials about how many people might participate in the program (though we played no role in helping design this process or the application itself). Even so, it was astonishing for us to see just how simple it is to apply for debt relief.
Other aspects of the situation are less simple. Student loan forgiveness is subject to intense political disagreement and multiple lawsuits. On Friday, a federal appeals court issued a temporary stay that halted the potential discharge of debt. But borrowers can still submit applications and the Biden administration immediately made it clear that it would like them to do so. “The order does not reverse the trial court’s dismissal of the case or suggest that the case has merit,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said.
Setting aside the conflict over policy, the streamlined application shows what is possible when government prioritizes the public in the delivery of public services. The form can be completed in just a couple of minutes. It works on both a computer and a smartphone, and it is available in Spanish and English. It’s three simple pages: a welcome page, a form and a confirmation page on which applicants attest that they are eligible. Beneficiaries do not have to create an account with a password, a seemingly small step that can actually discourage people from starting. Applicants need five pieces of information: name, Social Security number, date of birth, phone number and email address. That’s it.
This simplicity is no accident. It represents a series of choices informed by design principles that focus on how applicants experience the process. It’s a sharp contrast from how we normally think about government: confusing forms, hours spent tracking down documents to provide information that the government often has already, all accompanied by the feeling that the people on the other side of the screen are making it hard on purpose.
A deeper look at the choices made by the Biden administration in putting together the student loan forgiveness application illustrates both why overly complicated processes often became the norm and how to simplify more of them.
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