IHEP Report Finds College Remains Unaffordable for Many Americans

Title: Limited Means, Limited Options: College Remains Unaffordable for Many Americans

Author: Alain Poutré, Jamey Rorison, and Maime Voight

Source: Institute for Higher Education Policy

College affordability is at the forefront of higher education conversations. However, there is not a clear understanding of what is affordable. A recent report by the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), with support from the Lumina Foundation, seeks to answer just that. The authors of the report created ten student profiles with different backgrounds and income levels to portray what an affordable higher education looks like for each individual student.

The report utilizes the Affordability Benchmark, which uses discretionary income to calculate affordability and “seeks to provide a simple, reasonable, and equitable perspective from which to consider what is affordable for families of varied means.” By using the benchmark, the authors portray how various policies related to affordability would affect the percent of institutions considered affordable for each student.

To read the full publication, see IHEP’s website.