As issues with the "new" Free Application for Federal Student Aid form continue, institutions are trying to do all that they can to process applications and get aid letters to students as quickly as possible. The stakes are high: Without those letters, families are in the dark about their options to pay for college, and college-access advocates worry the challenges will discourage low-income and first-generation students from pursuing higher education entirely.

So how did a bipartisan effort to overhaul an outdated federal aid system become a political and logistical fiasco for the already-embattled U.S. Department of Education?

The fallout from the University of Florida's decision to eliminate all positions related to diversity, equity, and inclusion has been fast and furious, with students, professors, alumni, and even football legend Emmitt Smith expressing disappointment and outrage.

The move by UF comes following a new state law banning DEI initiatives at public colleges. After Florida and Texas, more Republican-led legislatures around the country are pushing about 50 similar anti-DEI bills this year, according to a recent Associated Press analysis.

Nearly 11,000 high school students in Arizona aren't anxiously waiting to find out what universities or colleges have accepted them. They received letters telling them they had been accepted to attend one or more of Arizona's three state universities next fall—before they officially applied.

The early acceptance letters are part of an expanding effort in Arizona and other states to get more students to attend college after high school at a time when college and universities are battling to shore up enrollments and businesses are clamoring for more workers with higher education.