Washington — In an effort to refocus the student financial aid system on student needs and limitations, policy analysts unveiled a new paper Tuesday that espouses a “Rule of 10” in which the net cost of college should equate 10 percent of a family’s discretionary income over 10 years, coupled with 10 hours of work per year throughout the duration of a 
Anything beyond that would be considered “unaffordable,” according to Mark Huelsman, author of the paper and senior policy expert at Demos, a public policy organization in New York.
“We don’t have to all come to the same standard definition,” Huelsman said Tuesday at the annual conference of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, where he presented his paper. The paper, titled “Out of Reach? How a Shared Definition of College Affordability Exposes a Crisis for Low-Income Students,” can be found here.
“But I think it’s more important that we start really feeling out our first principles on this issue in a way that we haven’t before.”
Asked by Diverse if the plan was feasible for colleges and universities, the government and taxpayers, Huelsman and his collaborators at the Lumina Foundation, which developed the “Rule of 10” and provided support for the paper, said the concept is meant to be a conversation starter in the higher education policy world, as opposed to a full-fledged plan.
They also cautioned against using the “Rule of 10” as a “personal finance tool” and said it’s meant to refocus the discussion on college affordability on students in a way that makes it less financially burdensome than the current system, which produces graduates laden with an average of $30,000 in student loan debt.
Under the Rule of 10 framework, college is not affordable for students from families of lesser economic means in any state, Huelsman’s paper found.
