Public colleges and universities are a key driver of social and economic mobility, yet they also face increasingly challenging financial and political environments. In this essay, I discuss four key areas in which state higher education policy can influence student success and equity: the amount of funding provided, funding allocation mechanisms,…

Since 2003, the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) has produced the annual State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) report to broaden understanding and enable analysis of state-level and national funding and enrollment trends over time. The SHEF report provides the earliest possible review of state funding for higher…

This work builds upon the work of the Postsecondary Value Commission (PVC), a group founded in 2019 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Consisting of 30 leaders in higher education, including AASCU's former president Mildred García who served as co-chair, the PVC came together to answer the question "what is college worth?" by…