The Postsecondary Education Commission is currently examining the question of affordability at California's colleges and universities. It is a pivotal issue that is being debated both within and outside the higher education community. Clearly, the ability of students and families to finance a higher education is becoming a critical issue. This report addresses the "affordability crisis" in California higher education today. It served as a background piece for panel discussions that were held at the Commission's June 27, 2006, meeting. In a recent paper prepared for the National Commission on the Future of Higher Education, the Public Policy Institute for Higher Education identified four major policy concerns surrounding higher education: (1) Student Affordability; (2) Institutional Cost Control; (3) State and National Capacity; and (4) Public Credibility. This report is divided into the following sections: (1) Background; (2) The Commission's Principles; (3) The Role of Need-Based Grant Aid; (4) The Dynamics of Debt; (5) What Are the Major Risk Factors in Education Debt?; and (6) The Affordability Panel. Appended are: (1) Development of a New Commission Policy on Higher Education Affordability: A Set of Principles; and (2) Detailed cost information on all of the California public university campuses.

California's Master Plan for Higher Education represented a promise, of an affordable college education, to every person who could benefit. For decades, California's lawmakers honored that promise. Rapidly increasing college fees, coupled with higher costs for room and board, books, transportation, and healthcare are pricing students out of higher education or burdening them with excessive debt. This anthology of the California Postsecondary Education Commission's research provides insights into why college is less affordable and what California's leaders can do to make higher education affordable once again. There are five Commission documents in this anthology. These include: (1) Recommended Policy Options and a Panel Report on College Affordability (Report 06-22, December 2006); (2) Keeping College Affordable in California: A Report of the Special Panel on Affordability to the California Postsecondary Education Commission (December 2006); (3) Developing a Statewide Higher Education Affordability Policy (June 2006); (4) Development of a New Commission Policy on Higher Education Affordability: A Set of Principles; and (5) Resident Undergraduate Student Fees -- Issues and Options (March 2006).

"Affordability, access, and accountability will continue to be hot-button issues as legislators at all levels address constituents' concerns about their children's future; inevitably, as a result, these legislators become more proactively involved in shaping public colleges' budgets, policies, and mandates. Any administrator who wants to gain a deeper understanding of these issues than can be gleaned from a presidential candidates' debate might do well to spend some time with these essays." -- University Business

Noting that public concern about college affordability was at a 30 year high, the U.S. Congress moved to convene the National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education in 1998. The wide ranging recommendations of the cost commission constitute a framework of shared responsibility for maintaining financial access to higher education. Many of the cost commission's recommendations, which depend on federal, state, and institutional implementation, were incorporated into the 1998 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965.