College Affordability

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Staggering increases in college prices, and public policies that exacerbate existing inequalities, continue to threaten the ability of low- and middle-income students as well as students of color to afford higher education. 

Recent Actions

• Ed Trust released a statement urging Congress to work together to maintain the interest rate on subsidized student loans for undergraduates at 3.4%, rather than allowing it to double to 6.8%.
• Ed Trust Vice President Jose Cruz testified before the U.S. Senate HELP Committee on the importance of keeping college affordable for low- and moderate-income students.

For more information:

• Check out our data points on financial aid and equity in higher education — including our brochure on college affordability — and our extensive analysis of the Pell Grant program.
• Take an in-depth look at how cost impacts both student access and success in “Priced Out: How the Wrong Financial-Aid Policies Hurt Low-Income Students.”
• Read the Access to Success midterm report, detailing the efforts that 22 state university systems have made to halve college-going and graduation gaps by 2015.
• Learn more about for-profit colleges and universities with our data points and “Subprime Opportunity: The Unfulfilled Promise of For-Profit Colleges and Universities.”

Additional items of interest:

• Following the debt ceiling deal, the Pell coalition joined together to call on the super-committee co-chair, Sen. Patty Murray, to protect Pell.
• During the contentious debt-ceiling negotiations, the Pell coalition urged President Obama to spare Pell from the chopping block.
• The Save Pell coalition loudly opposed Rep. Paul Ryan's proposed budget, which would have taken a hatchet to Pell Grant funding.
• We've urged U.S. senators to oppose the DeMint amendment to the 2011 Economic Development Revitalization Act or any other legislation designed to nullify the new gainful employment rule.
• In response to proposed federal budget cuts that would derail efforts to regulate for-profit college companies, Ed Trust sent a letter urging Congress to protect students and taxpayers.
• Read the Ed Trust’s letter opposing the Education for All Act, which, despite its alluring name, would prevent the Department of Education from protecting students from aggressive and misleading recruitment practices.
• Read “Lifting the Fog on Inequitable Financial-Aid Policies,” Ed Trust’s examination of college aid policies that benefit students who don’t need help at the expense of those who do.