Evidence Against the Free-College Agenda: An Analysis of Prices, Financial Aid, and Affordability at Public Universities

AEI finds the college cost shift to students isn't found in the data. IE that after student aide there hasn't been that much of an increase in the tuition prices that student pay to attend public universities (See Figure 1 and 2) There has been an increase in other living expenses (See Figure 5 and 6) This analysis is limited to low and middle income students

“…The findings in this report show that popular claims about sharply rising tuition prices at public universities are greatly exaggerated. While sticker prices have indeed increased markedly since the mid-1990s (they have more than doubled),financial aid has increased by almost as much—enough to nearly offset the rise in sticker prices.And net tuition prices at these institutions are a fraction of the $10,000 sticker prices prominent free-college advocates frequently cite.....Among low- and middle-income students, average net tuition prices increased less than $600 between the 1995-96 and 2015-16 academic years....The findings also suggest that rising living expenses, not tuition prices, are to blame for major changes in affordability at public universities, a topic that deserves more attention in debates about college affordability.... Financial aid has also increased to cover more of these students’ living expenses, but not enough to fully offset rapidly rising non-tuition costs…Existing financial aid policies have successfully held average net tuition prices at public universities nearly constant between the 1995-96 and 2015-16 academic years for the students whom free-college policies typically target. The increase in financial aid has even been enough to cover more of a student’s living expenses than during the mid-1990s. These findings do not, however, contradict other concerns about the cost of a four-year degree at public universities. The data confirm that the cost of providing these educations are rising at rates that greatly exceed inflation, assuming that sticker prices generally reflect the educational costs that universities incur. While students have not had to pay these rising costs, other entities have, mainly the federal government and state governments to a lesser extent….”