In this article, "Education Next" talks with Sara Goldrick-Rab and Andrew Kelly. President Obama's proposal for tuition-free community college, seems to have laid down a marker for the Democratic Party. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is touting his plan for free four-year public college on the primary trail; Massachusetts senator…

Students and families all over the country are saving, working, taking out loans, and taking steps to make college affordable. Yet they still find themselves facing an unreasonably high price for college, with unexpected, and sometimes untenable, expenses, and fall short of the resources they need to successfully complete degrees. Financial…