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A family shopping for college today knows more about the cost of a mortgage than the real price of a college degree. That confusion isn鈥檛 only a technical problem inside financial aid offices. It鈥檚 a public trust problem for higher education.

This problem isn鈥檛 new. In 1998, the National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education, created by the U.S. Congress, issued a report 鈥淪traight Talk About College Costs and Prices.鈥� I served as its executive director. It warned that colleges had allowed 鈥渁 veil of obscurity鈥� to settle over their financial operations. It cautioned that continued inattention would create 鈥渁 gulf of ill will鈥� 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 tuitions, offer online calculators and send financial aid letters. Yet too often, the answer to a family’s simplest question about what college will cost arrives late and varies by institution. It鈥檚 also wrapped in language that blurs the difference between free money, borrowed money, campus jobs, parent loans and the amount the family must pay.

A grant or scholarship lowers the bill. A loan delays the bill. A campus job helps a student earn money but isn鈥檛 a discount. A parent loan isn鈥檛 financial aid in the ordinary sense. It鈥檚 debt shifted from the student to the family. When these categories are mixed, the fog thickens. And price confusion isn鈥檛 neutral. It shapes who believes college is possible.

The most concrete example is the financial aid offer. For many high school students and families, it鈥檚 the moment college becomes real. It鈥檚 supposed to answer practical questions: What will this school cost? How much is free? How much is borrowed? How does this compare to another school’s offer?

Too often, those answers are harder to decipher than they should be.

In 2022, the how nearly two-thirds of colleges follow half or fewer of the 10 best practices for providing families with clear, standardized information. Aid offers used different terms for the same thing, failed to clearly separate loans from scholarships and presented parent loans in ways that made family borrowing look like institutional generosity. Families were then expected to compare offers that weren鈥檛 comparable. GAO concluded, 鈥淔ederal law doesn’t require colleges to include clear, standard information in all of their financial aid offers. Congress should consider mandating that colleges do so.鈥�

The data on public confidence tells the same story. that Americans still value postsecondary education but increasingly doubt whether an affordable path is within reach. Strada’s finds that confusing college prices do more than irritate families. They erode institutional trust.

The most striking institutional warning comes from Yale University. In April 2026, a faculty committee appointed by Yale’s president released a on trust in higher education. It identified three immediate causes of public distrust: soaring prices, questions about who gets in and why, and campus controversies over speech and political bias.

The committee reported that trust in higher education has dropped from 57% of Americans expressing high confidence a decade ago to an historic low of 36% in 2024, a faster decline than in almost any other institution. That a committee of tenured faculty from one of the wealthiest universities in the world was compelled to write that sentence signals how serious the trust deficit has become.

Affordability is also the political word 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, that鈥檚 turned price transparency from a financial-aid concern into a larger argument over whether families can still afford the basics of opportunity.

Washington has noticed. Both the U.S. and are considering legislative proposals to require clearer college pricing. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Education鈥檚 proposed Student Tuition and Transparency System, or , would give families better information about specific programs, not just college-wide averages. The reason is simple: Students don鈥檛 enroll in institutions. They enroll in nursing, business, engineering or social work. The cost and payoff of those choices can vary widely.

To rebuild trust, higher education needs a new transparency compact with students, families and taxpayers. No student should have to enroll, borrow, or make a financial commitment before knowing program cost, what鈥檚 free, what must be repaid and what students can expect after completing it.

Five commitments are an important first step to get there. 

First, standardize financial aid offers. Every offer should clearly separate scholarships and grants from loans and work-study, show the full expected cost of attendance, tuition, fees, housing, food, books and transportation; it should never label a loan as 鈥渁id鈥� without making plain that it must be repaid.

The which more than 400 postsecondary institutions have signed on to, is an encouraging voluntary step. But voluntary action reveals the size of the problem. If colleges need a national initiative to agree that aid letters should be clear, the sector should ask why that wasn鈥檛 already the norm.

Second, give students program-level information, not just college-wide averages. A student deciding whether to enroll in a nursing program, business degree, teaching credential or graduate program needs information about that choice, not just the college’s overall average.

Third, make the real price knowable earlier. Families shouldn鈥檛 have to apply, wait, be admitted and decode a letter before receiving a realistic number. Earlier, more personalized information should be the standard.

Fourth, connect price to outcomes. This exercise shouldn鈥檛 reduce education to a salary ranking. Students deserve to know completion rates, debt levels, loan repayment patterns and likely earnings. But higher education has civic, intellectual and personal value, too. Transparency should illuminate the risks and rewards of different paths, not flatten them.

Fifth, treat clarity as a trust-building obligation. A college can satisfy a federal reporting requirement and still leave families confused. The real test is whether ordinary students and parents understand the offer, compare it to alternatives and decide without needing an expert translator.

Higher education does not need to pretend college pricing is simple. It鈥檚 not. But complexity isn鈥檛 an excuse for obscurity.

Price transparency won鈥檛 by itself make college affordable. It won鈥檛 fix state budget cuts or the uneven labor-market value of different credentials. But without it, no college affordability agenda will be trusted.

The gulf of ill will the 1998 commission warned about is now visible in surveys, in congressional hearings, in federal audits of aid letters and in families who conclude college is unaffordable before they even apply.

The first step toward rebuilding confidence is also the simplest. Tell students and families, plainly and early, what college will cost them.

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