Policy Domain 2.1. Strategic Pricing
Rising prices are frequently mentioned in any discussion related to college affordability. The narrative often cited is that rising prices are the result of state disinvestment in public higher education and increases in the cost of providing a high-quality education, especially costs associated with personnel. But there is a lack of widespread understanding—among the general public and even key institutional decision-makers and state legislators—about the relationships between the cost of providing a high-quality education, the revenues that institutions make from various sources, and the prices charged to students and families.
Public policies should facilitate more strategic institutional practices for setting prices that take institutional revenues and expenses into account.
Policy Domain 2.2. Strategic Spending
The most common and most actionable cost drivers in public higher education are more complex and nuanced than the usual culprits brought up in discussions of rising college prices like administrative bloat and amenities arms races. Although the relative impacts of each cost driver can vary by type of institution, what’s clear is that institutions have choices about how to address certain cost drivers. That is, institutions can choose to spend their resources—whether they’re from tuition and fees or from government appropriations—more intentionally and more strategically to hold down consumer costs without sacrificing educational quality and student success.
Public policies should facilitate more strategic institutional spending on things that increase educational quality and student success.
