Basic questions concerning the debate over tuition tax credits and expanded student aid and perspectives about the relationship between college costs and family income are discussed. The fundamental policy issues, rather than strictly economic issues, are the focus of attention. The most obvious challenge to existing policy has been support for the tuition tax credit, which is in effect a federal scholarship awarded without reference to financial need. It is suggested that support for need-based aid is waning on campus as well as in government. With the recognition that financial need formulas were based on arbitrary and debatable judgments came experimentation with the components of the Basic Opportunity Grant formula to increase aid going to middle and upper income students, and a growing sense of unease in the student aid community regarding the credibility and public acceptability of financial need analysis. There also has been the question of whether parents should be responsible for paying college costs for their children in light of the fact that a number of students are claiming financial independence from their parents. The prospect of declining enrollments in the 1980s poses another challenge to existing student aid policy, since colleges will be influenced by the financing policies of state and federal governments. A few predictions about policy issues are offered. (SW)