The National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education met in Washington, D.C., January 21 and approved its final report. The Commission's report did not include an executive summary, and the Commission did not issue any kind of freestanding summary. Unless academic institutions attend to these problems now, policymakers at both the state and Federal levels could impose unilateral solutions that are likely to be heavy-handed and regulatory.
People consider a college degree as essential to their children's future . . . .
And, they also worry that access and opportunity are slipping away. The public and its leaders are concerned about where higher education places its priorities. . . . Academic institutions need much better definitions and measures of how faculty members, administrators, and students use their time. . . . College finances are far too opaque. Issues of cost, price, subsidy, and net price have been difficult for the members of this Commission to master.