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ABOUT US

Our Mission

Partners for College Affordability and Public Trust (Partners) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to making high-quality, affordable college education a reality for all Americans.

We are committed to accelerating the widespread adoption of public policies and institutional practices that improve quality and lower costs at America’s public colleges and universities. We translate good ideas into action by bridging the gaps between research, policy, and practice. And we ensure that policymakers and college leaders are held accountable by an informed and engaged public.

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Our Achievements

We have been successful in changing the public conversation about college affordability in our pilot state of Virginia. We plan to scale the lessons we’ve learned through this work to other states.
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Impact Report

State Policy Advocacy

In Virginia, we worked collaboratively with legislators on both sides of the aisle to develop, introduce, and pass legislation in support of our policy priorities. As a result of our efforts and the efforts of our coalition partners and student activists, Virginia’s public colleges and universities are on track to increase transparency, accountability, and affordability.

Driven by our early advocacy efforts, Virginia’s public universities are currently required to announce plans to raise tuition and to post consumer information such as graduation and retention rates, growth in tuition and fees, and employment on their websites.

In 2019, the Virginia General Assembly allocated an additional $52.5M in funding for public colleges and universities that agree to freeze in-state tuition for the coming year. Students and families will save more than $50 million in tuition and fees because of this action.

Virginia’s public colleges and universities will be required to hear from students, families, and other members of the public before tuition and fees for the upcoming year are set.

Financial aid award letters at Virginia’s public colleges and universities will be more comparable and easier for students and families to understand, helping them make better-informed financial decisions.

Virginia’s public colleges and universities will now be required to clearly identify courses that use low-cost or no-cost textbooks in course catalogs so students can better plan for expenses in addition to tuition and fees.

Virginia’s public colleges and universities must now provide explanations for unexpected increases in tuition and fees that deviate from projections in their six-year financial plans.

Governing boards of Virginia’s public colleges and universities will receive training on their primary duty to the Commonwealth and on student debt trends.

Coalition Building

A letter of support for the public comment legislation that we championed was signed by the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, AARP-Virginia, the Virginia Parent Teacher Association, the Virginia Education Association, National Campus Leadership Council, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, U.S. PIRG (Public Interest Research Group), and more than 40 prominent Virginia political, business, and community leaders.

We published an op-ed co-authored by our president and the executive director of AARP-Virginia describing how college affordability is an issue that spans generations.

Building Awareness

We placed a total of seven op-eds in Virginia periodicals such as the Richmond Times-Dispatch making the case for our policy proposals.

The Washington Post ran an editorial we co-authored with the minority leader of the Virginia House of Delegates describing the need to make textbooks more affordable.

We hosted three town halls on college affordability with state legislators and the public across the state that generated print and television coverage.

We published an op-ed in the New York Times authored by one of our Board members called “No College Kid Needs a Water Park to Study.”

Improving Transparency and Accountability

We published a comprehensive online database detailing tuition and debt levels and current polices about tuition freezes, public comment periods, and board training in all 50 states.

We created a College Affordability Dashboard that helps students and families evaluate how Virginia’s public colleges and universities compare on key metrics of affordability and value.

As part of a groundbreaking effort to incentivize and empower public college trustees to become advocates for cost reduction and affordability, we published a first-of-its-kind database of the votes of trustees at Virginia’s public colleges and universities on proposed tuition and fee increases at their institutions.

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