College Cost Crunch

Rising tuition and student loan debt is a national problem. No state has escaped the college cost crunch. But individual states have been affected to different degrees. This report provides information on the college affordability problem in each state.

"Individualized state reports provide information for each state on:
• The rising cost of college;• The erosion of the value of the Pell Grant;• The amount of student loan debt incurred by college graduates;• The amount of family income needed to pay for college;• The amount of savings if student loan interest rates were cut in half;• The reduction in monthly costs if student loan payments were capped at 15 percent of a borrower’s discretionary income;• The increase in the average Pell Grant award and the number of studentseligibleif the maximum Pell Grant were increased to $5,100; and• The number of students and families who are likely to benefit from re-instituting the college tuition tax deduction, which expired at the end of 2005."
Source: Reference Shelf