What is Affordability? Nothing like restating the obvious question! But we have to start with what students really have to pay. And this is where Kentucky might have a bright spot or two – in case you thought the trends in Part I of this blog were depressing. When we focus only on rising tuition costs, it leaves out other important cost and resource considerations – namely room, board, and other living expenses, as well as resources students get from financial aid. When you combine all this together, you get to the clearer measure of real costs to students – Net Price – the amount left over to be covered by student resources (i.e. savings, student debt, work).

I moved to Kentucky in 1990, right as KERA was happening, and was thrilled. You see, I lived in one of the New Jersey school districts that sued for fairer funding and won a landmark ruling, and I knew that 17 years later, those districts were still in court. Then I moved here, where the Rose decision was not yet one year old and state leaders had already adopted a comprehensive approach to reform.

My wife and I stared blankly at one another last month when Governor Andy Beshear announced that child care providers would close in response to the Covid-10 pandemic. As parents of an infant and preschooler, we had to make quick shifts (like so many families) to handle what has become a daily routine of managing workloads, parenting, diapering, and teaching. Added to that was a new worry. We love our child care center, the teachers and the staff. It is in the neighborhood in which I grew up. We desperately want it to reopen when this public health crisis wanes.

On Wednesday of this week, the U.S. Senate passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).  The emergency relief measure provides approximately $2 trillion dollars in federal stimulus to support individuals, businesses, as well as state and local governments weather the COVID-19 crisis.

The COVID-19 outbreak has given us many new challenges to ponder and a new reality to face. It has also given us an opportunity to look backward on our lives in search of past experiences that might help each of us make sense of the situation and bring some hope and peace to others who may be struggling. The closure of all childcare facilities, schools, and colleges for the time being has been daunting to accept for those of us in the education community – from advocates like us at the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, to teachers, parents and students.