College costs

Not every student in Oregon gets to go on from high school to the college or the other training of their choice. Lack of money can get in the way.

What would it take to remove most of the affordability issues for college in Oregon? Lots and lots more money.

For the 2022-2023 school year, Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission estimates the total annual cost would have been $199 million. That’s based on more than 31,000 students with unmet needs. It’s is calculated they would have needed an additional grant of about $6,362 each.

It would be on top of the existing investments. On top of that, it would be competing with so many other goals and priorities of the state for that money. And it may only increase the numbers of students that apply, increasing the need for money.

The commission estimates that cost outweighed resources for more than a third of students for college, 36%. Commission staff stressed Thursday that is an estimate. The commission only has data for students who apply for financial aid, not all families can afford what they are expected to be able to contribute and many more factors. Students may have simply decided they could not afford it and they would not be captured in the estimate.

As you would expect, students with lower income backgrounds had more unmet need. Students at community colleges had less unmet need because of the lower cost of those institutions. Community colleges are a bargain.

The big drivers of increased costs of college are tuition and fees. Other costs have risen, too, but those have gone up the fastest. And the confusion and delays over financial aid did nobody any favors this year.