Editorial: With these steps, Congress is moving toward making college more affordable

As children make their way through school, they are often reminded college is the path toward a successful career and stability.

However, for many students and families, this path has become unaffordable. The cost of tuition continues to rise, and many families are unprepared for the high sticker price.

A recent story in Scripps News, using statistics from data company Talker Research, reported that only 32% of U.S. families surveyed had saved enough to fully fund their children's education.

The report, based on responses from parents of high school seniors, presents a startling reality: College has become unattainable for a large part of the population.

The nonprofit College Board found that on average, tuition and fees for a four-year public college totaled about $12,000 for in-state students and nearly $32,000 for out-of-state students in the most recent school year. The average tuition cost for a private four-year college was a staggering $45,000.

And this doesn't include housing, meal plans and textbooks.

While colleges broadly offer financial aid to low-income students, many families make too much to qualify for need-based aid but not enough to afford the tuition without taking out a loan. Families shouldn't have to essentially take out a second mortgage to send their kids to college.

The encouraging news is that Congress has taken steps to make college more affordable for average Americans.

The Working Families Tax Cuts Act went into effect this month. The law sets reasonable caps on how much parents can borrow from the federal government to pay for their children's undergraduate tuition and how much college graduates can borrow for a master's degree. Previously, federal college loan programs allowed people to borrow up to the full cost of attendance.

Under the new law, parents can borrow up to $20,000 per student per year - and up to $65,000 in total - while graduate students can borrow a total of $100,000 for a master's program and up to $200,000 for a professional degree program like law, medicine or business administration.

The idea is that by limiting what families and students can borrow from the federal government, colleges will be forced to price their programs at the costs that families can pay.

Institutions have already begun lowering their costs, such as the University of California, Irvine, which cut the price of two of its MBA programs by up to 38%. We expect more institutions will follow suit.

College was once a promise to career options and a stable income. For too many students, it's now a gamble that will keep them or their parents deep in debt for years.

Congress understands college has become too expensive. Universities should come to the same realization.

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This story was originally published July 7, 2026 at 7:03 AM.