One of the hottest topics on the campaign trail today is college affordability. The costs associated with getting a college degree continue to soar, and there's no real sign that trend will change. Of course, there's always talk of a free education for all or more funding from the state and federal level, but so far it’s just talk. Thanks to programs like Texas GEAR UP, our kids are becoming more prepared for college and hopefully earning more scholarships and grants to offset the expense. But the bigger issue is how to wrangle in the price of a degree so that the fear of incurring student debt doesn’t prevent TXGU'ers from accomplishing their dream.

This Inside Higher Ed article explores a new study by the Lumina Foundation that seeks to turn the question of how much college should cost on its end. Instead of focusing on how much money is charged by a university, they suggest focusing on how much a family could realistically pay. Sure there are caveats galore, but the plan suggests if families could save ten percent of their discretionary income over a ten-year period and their kids work for ten hours a week while in college, the government could pick up the rest of the tab. The proposal is not without some criticism by educational experts and the Lumina Foundation itself. However, outside-of-the-box ideas like this could lead to defining what “college affordability” truly means, once and for all.