by Bruno V. mannoThe 74
This story appeared first 74A non-profit news site covering education. Sign up for the free newsletter from The 74 Get more like this in your inbox.
A family shopping for college today knows more about the cost of a mortgage than the actual value of a college degree. This confusion isn’t just a technical problem inside the financial aid office. This is an issue of public trust for higher education.
This problem is not new. In 1998, the National Commission on the Expenditure of Higher Education, established by the US Congress, issued a report. title “Talk directly about college costs and prices.” I served as its Executive Director. It warned that colleges were providing a “veil of obscurity” to stabilize their financial operations. It warned that continued inattention would create a “gulf of ill will” between higher education and the public it serves.
More than a quarter century later, that warning is less a prediction than a diagnosis.
Yes, colleges publish tuition, offer and send online calculators Letter of financial aid. Yet often, the answer to a family’s simplest question about what college will cost comes late and varies by institution. It’s also wrapped in language that blurs the distinctions between free money, borrowed money, campus jobs, parent loans, and the amount the family must pay.
A grant or scholarship lowers the bill. A debt bill is delayed. A campus job helps a student earn money but it is not an exemption. A parent loan is not financial aid in the ordinary sense. It shifts the debt from student to family. When these sections mix, the fog thickens. And price confusion is not neutral. Who believes that college is possible?
The most concrete example is financial aid offers. For many high school students and families, this is the moment college becomes real. It is supposed to answer the practical question: How much will this school cost? How much is free? How much is borrowed? How does it compare to what other schools offer?
Often, these answers are harder to understand than they should be.
In 2022, the The Government Accountability Office is registered How nearly two-thirds of colleges follow half or less of the 10 best practices for providing clear, quality information to families. Aid offers used different terms for the same thing, failed to clearly distinguish loans from scholarships, and presented parental loans in a way that made family loans look like institutional generosity. Households were then expected to compare offers that were not comparable The GAO concluded, “Federal law does not require colleges to include clear, standardized information in all of their financial aid offers. Congress should consider mandating colleges to do so.”
Public confidence data tells a similar story. Gallup and Lumina’s 2026 State of Higher Education Report Americans who still value post-secondary education but increasingly doubt whether an affordable path is within reach. of Strada Research It turns out that confusing college prices do more than upset families. They undermine institutional trust.
The most interesting institutional warning comes from Yale University. In April 2026, a faculty committee appointed by Yale’s president published a Report On trust in higher education. It identified three immediate causes of public distrust: price gouging, questions and discourse about who gets in and why, and campus debates about political bias.
The committee reports that trust in higher education has fallen from 57% of Americans expressing high confidence a decade ago to a historic low of 36% in 2024, a faster decline than almost any other institution. That a committee of permanent faculty at one of the world’s wealthiest universities was forced to write that sentence indicates how serious the trust deficit has become.
Affordability is also the political buzzword of the moment. From housing and groceries to health care and college, both political parties are talking about the cost of living. In higher education, this has turned price transparency from a concern about financial aid to a larger argument about whether families can still afford the basics of opportunity.
Washington noticed. Both are US house And The Senate Legislative proposals requiring clear college pricing are considered. Additionally, the US Department of Education’s proposed Student Tuition and Transparency System, or StatisticsIt will give families better information about specific programs, not just college-wide averages. The reason is simple: students do not enroll in institutions. They enroll in nursing, business, engineering or social work. Costs and reimbursements for these choices can vary widely.
To rebuild trust, higher education needs a new transparency compact with students, families and taxpayers. No student should enroll, borrow, or make a financial commitment before knowing the program costs, what’s free, what to pay, and what to expect upon completion.
The Five Commitments are an important first step in getting there.
First, standardize financial aid offers. Each offer should clearly separate scholarships and grants from loans and work-study, showing the full expected costs of attendance, tuition, fees, housing, meals, books and transportation; It should never be labeled “assistance” without making it clear that the loan must be repaid.
D College Cost Transparency Initiative, Signed by more than 400 postsecondary institutions, this is an encouraging voluntary initiative. But voluntary action reveals the size of the problem. If colleges need a national initiative to agree that letters of aid should be clear, the sector should ask why that wasn’t already the norm.
Second, give students program-level information, not just college-wide averages. A student deciding to enroll in a nursing program, business degree, teaching credential or graduate program needs information about that choice, not just the overall college average.
Third, the true value is known in advance. Families don’t have to apply, wait, get admitted and decode a letter before getting a realistic number. Before, more personalized information will be the standard.
Fourth, attach value to results. This practice will not reduce education to salary ranking. Students deserve to know completion rates, loan levels, repayment patterns and potential earnings. But higher education also has civic, intellectual, and personal value. Transparency should illuminate the risks and rewards of different paths, not flatten them.
Fifth, treat transparency as a trust-building obligation. A college can satisfy a federal reporting requirement and still mislead families. The real test is whether the average student and parent understand the offer, compare it to the alternatives, and make a decision without the need for an expert translator.
There is no need to pretend that the cost of college is easy for a higher education. It doesn’t. But complexity is not an excuse for ambiguity.
Price transparency alone will not make college affordable. It will not fix state budget shortfalls or the unequal labor-market value of different credentials. But without it, no college affordability agenda will be believed.
A 1998 commission warned about the gulf of illness that is now unaffordable in surveys, congressional hearings, federal audits of aid letters and families who conclude college before they apply.
The first step towards rebuilding confidence is also the easiest. Tell students and families, clearly and early, what college will cost them
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This is the story is produced by 74A nonprofit, independent news organization focused on education in America.
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