The way Americans pay for higher education is changing

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

60% : Since state funding shifts, there are steps colleges can take to make higher education more affordable for its students.
57% : Dancy said the availability of institutional aid is a good first step, "using grants in ways that help them both attract students, to encourage them to enroll in their institutions and also as a tool for retention and to support degree completion for those students over the course of their education," she said.To be sure, Dancy said that even with the increases in grant aid, there is still the issue of unmet need, which she defined as "a really substantial gap between what many students can afford and what they are asked to pay to enroll in higher education.
51% : However, it's unclear where federal investment for higher education will sit under President-elect Donald Trump, placing the focus on colleges to consider ways to make a four-year degree affordable.
50% : Those funds have now run out, meaning colleges are subject to the volatility of the state budget funding cycle -- and higher education is usually on the funding chopping block.
49% : Students are increasingly sensitive to taking out loans, and with many questioning the value of higher education, it's forcing colleges to consider whether they can still afford to raise tuition, even with a looming enrollment cliff and volatile state funding.
49% : "And so they're going to still be in a bind for a while figuring out, 'How do we mitigate that?'"Over 40 million Americans have student debt, and while President Joe Biden has taken steps to improve some programs to make the loans easier to pay off, high interest rates can leave many struggling to pay off their balances for decades.
47% : "Institutions will really have to grapple with if they do see a decline in state appropriations, maybe they can't raise tuition in the way they did in the past," Dimino said.
45% : The conversation on the value of higher education could also be weighing on state's decisions to boost funding for colleges, leading some officials to think that "maybe it's not as worthwhile to invest in the sector," Delaney added.

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