This ambitious book grows out of the realization that a convergence of economic, demographic, and political forces in the early twenty-first century requires a fundamental reexamination of the financing of American higher education.

The authors identify and address basic issues and trends that cut across the sectors of higher education, focusing on such questions as how much higher education the country needs for individual opportunity and for economic viability in the future; how responsibility for paying for it is currently allocated; and how financing higher education should be addressed in the future.
About the Author: William Zumeta is a professor in the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs and the College of Education at the University of Washington, a former senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, and a fellow of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund Institute (TIAA-CREF). He has served as associate dean and acting dean of the Evans School. Zumeta received his master's and PhD degrees from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and has previously taught at the University of British Columbia, UCLA, and the Claremont Graduate University. He has studied and written on a wide variety of issues in state and federal higher education policy, finance and accountability, and in a number of chapters and books; he has also contributed to such journals as Policy Sciences, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, Economics of Education Review, Journal of Higher Education, Review of Higher Education, Higher Education, and Issues in Science and Technology, among others.

Among his recent publications are "State Policies and Private Higher Education in the U.S.A.: Understanding the Variation in Comparative Perspective," in "Private Higher Education and Public Policy: A Comparative Global View," Daniel Levy and Zumeta, eds., special issue, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis 13, no. 4 (2011); with Alicia Kinne, "Accountability: Directions Old and New," in D. Heller, ed., The States and Public Higher Education Policy: Affordability, Access, and Accountability, 2nd ed. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011); and "States and Higher Education: Alone in a Stagnant Economy," in The NEA 2012 Almanac of Higher Education (Washington, DC: National Education Association). He has held grants from the U.S. Department of Education, National Science Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Lilly Endowment, Pew Charitable Trusts, Sloan Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation, as well as from numerous state agencies and national organizations.

David W. Breneman is a university professor and Newton and Rita Meyers Professor in Economics of Education at the University of Virginia. His books include Smart Leadership for Higher Education in Difficult Times (2011), Earnings from Learning: The Rise of For-Profit Universities (2006), Liberal Arts Colleges: Thriving, Surviving, or Endangered (1994), Finance in Higher Education (1993), Academic Labor Markets and Careers (1988), Financing Community Colleges: An Economic Perspective (1981), Public Policy and Private Higher Education (1978), and numerous articles, including several on the federal education budget in the Brookings series Setting National Priorities. He has served as senior fellow of The Brookings Institution, president of Kalamazoo College, visiting professor at Harvard, dean of the Curry School of Education, and director of the Public Policy Program at Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. He was a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country review team for tertiary education in Japan and has served as a trustee of Goucher and Sweet Briar Colleges.

Patrick M. Callan is president of the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan corporation founded in 1991. The Institute established and sponsored the California Higher Education Policy Center from 1992 to 1997 and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education from 1997 through June 30, 2011. Mr. Callan served as president of both organizations. Prior to his association with HEPI, Mr. Callan served as executive officer of state higher education boards and commissions in Montana, Washington, and California, and as vice president of the Education Commission of the States. He has chaired the boards of the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, and the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems. Mr. Callan has served as an advisor to national and regional organizations, state higher education boards and commissions, governors' offices, and state legislative committees. He is the author and coauthor of books, articles, and papers on education policy, educational opportunity, public accountability, financing of higher education, and public policy leadership. As president of the National Center, he oversaw the first report cards on the state-by-state and national performance of American higher education. The five Measuring Up report cards, issued biennially since 2000, have helped define national and state policy agendas.

Joni E. Finney is professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania and vice president of the Higher Education Policy Institute. She previously served as vice president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. At the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Finney is director of the Institute for Research and Higher Education, and is completing a five-state study of the relationship of state policy and performance. Dr. Finney directed Measuring Up, the nation's report card on higher education, and was principal author for the Measuring Up state reports. In addition, Finney has written articles for academic and policy leaders related to higher education finance, governance, and performance. She is coeditor and author of Public and Private Financing of Higher Education: Shaping Public Policy for the Future (ACE/Oryx Press, 1997) and Designing State Higher Education Systems (ACE/Oryx Press, 1997). She also coauthored Claiming Common Ground (The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 2007), which focuses on the policies that link high schools and colleges. In addition, Finney has authored Good Policy, Good Practice (The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 2008), a publication that identifies effective educational practices and the public policies that support them. Finney has served on numerous advisory boards and is a founding board member of the National Clearinghouse Research Center.