Don’t bury Kentucky seniors’ tuition waivers in red tape | Opinion

For 50 years, Kentucky has encouraged older citizens to keep learning. Under KRS 164.284, anyone 65 or older can attend state college classes tuition-free when space is available, a low-cost way to fill empty seats and spark lifelong learning. Now a proposal in House Bill 497 threatens to tangle this simple benefit in federal red tape.

House Bill 497 would require seniors to fill out the FAFSA, a lengthy federal aid form never meant for them. This law was never about income testing or need-based aid. Seniors simply enroll on a space-available basis at no extra cost to the school or the Commonwealth.

The FAFSA is used primarily by high school and younger college students applying for federal and state financial aid. For many seniors, it is a long and confusing online form that requires tech access and detailed financial reporting, all for aid for which they will never qualify. The only result is giving Washington sensitive financial data with no benefit in return.

The bill as it stands shifts a universal benefit into a means-tested hassle. Kentucky’s tuition waiver honors decades of seniors’ work and tax payments by letting them learn freely when open seats are going unused. Why add bureaucracy when empty seats cost nothing to fill?

At the University of Kentucky, the Donovan Scholars program serves about 130 to 150 older learners each year. Statewide, fewer than 1,000 seniors used the tuition waiver in 2024. (Out of 215,000+ college students) Evaluations of intergenerational learning programs find that mixing older and younger learners tends to produce classrooms that are more grounded in real-world issues and more oriented toward civic engagement, as students draw on seniors lived experience and community knowledge.

Research shows that learning later in life keeps minds sharp, reduces isolation, and even improves health outcomes. Some senior learners also boost their earnings or return to the workforce, bringing experience and energy back into local economies. In other words, a program that costs almost nothing can pay dividends in lower health-care costs, reduced reliance on public benefits, and higher community engagement.

Kentucky has long led the way in treating education as a public good. Lawmakers should keep it that way by removing the FAFSA requirement for those over age 65, preserving this simple, successful opportunity for lifelong learning. Our seniors earned it, let’s not make them jump through hoops to keep learning.

Roger Massengale is the treasurer of the Donovan Scholars Fellowship at the University of Kentucky.