Why Public College Is Becoming Unaffordable

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTlettersNov. 15, 2026, 9:00 a.m. ETImageThe University of California, Santa Barbara, recently said incoming undergraduates would be guaranteed on-campus housing for just two years, up from one before.Credit...ALEX WELSH FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESTo the Editor:Re “Rents Are Pushing Cost of State Schools Over $50,000” (news article, Oct. 25):The rising cost of higher education is a story about housing. And it isn’t just University of California students who are suffering. Community colleges — California’s open-door promise to anyone who wants an education — are also slipping out of reach for want of affordable housing.In a 2025 state survey, about 20 percent of California community college students said they experienced homelessness, and nearly 60 percent reported housing insecurity.When we leave student housing to the private market, we know which students get pushed out.We need sustained public investment in affordable housing if public higher education is to remain one of our most powerful engines of social mobility. California took a giant step with the Higher Education Student Housing Grant program created in 2022 — a more than $2 billion commitment to affordable housing for low-income students in all three public segments — but more is needed. Investments in affordable housing solutions, like social housing, can also ensure housing stability for people while they are students and beyond.A public university is open to everyone only if everyone has a place to live.Jetaun StevensSacramentoThe writer is the deputy director for higher education and a senior staff attorney at Public Advocates, a civil rights law firm and advocacy organization based in California.To the Editor:Your article correctly points out that housing shortages around universities can cause pressure on the housing market and increase costs for both locals and students who may then need to go into debt to afford housing in addition to their base tuition.While the universities should absolutely be providing housing for their students, they should be restricted from requiring that students under a certain age live in campus housing beyond the first year. Otherwise, it would be all too easy for university administrators to fix budget holes by extracting higher-than-market rents from contractually captive tenants.James WalkerLos Osos, Calif.Latino Voters’ ShiftImage Credit...Olivier Touron/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesTo the Editor:Re “Latino Voters Swing Back to Democrats, Again Reshaping Electoral Map” (news article, Nov. 7):Both Democrats and Republicans profess shock at the dramatic swing of Hispanic voters away from the G.O.P. I’m shocked that anyone is shocked.After two years of open Latino-bashing, ICE violence and arrests of law-abiding, long-term residents, family separations, third-country deportations, lack of due process, Supreme Court approval of racial profiling, attacks on birthright citizenship and intolerable conditions at deportation facilities, why would Hispanic voters ever trust the G.O.P. to treat that community fairly?Of course they abandoned the party of deportation, cruelty and nativism. That’s not the America they (or the rest of us) want to live in.Cheryl GreenbergWest Hartford, Conn.The writer is an emerita professor of history at Trinity College.Justice Kagan’s View of the CourtImageJustice Elena Kagan in Washington this summer. Justice Kagan, one of the court’s three liberals, has issued strongly worded dissents in individual election-related cases.Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “Justice Kagan Sounds an Alarm,” by Jesse Wegman (Opinion guest essay, Nov. 5):Mr. Wegman agrees with Justice Elena Kagan that the Supreme Court’s legitimacy is important to its effectiveness and that this legitimacy “helps to create a stable country.” The problem is that the court, through its many unpopular opinions, has to a great extent lost this legitimacy. This is apparent in the court’s historically low approval rating with the American public. Mr. Wegman proposes that the solution is “major court reform imposed by Congress.”I actually think there is a reasonable chance the court will take note of the public’s disapproval and begin to reform itself. I believe that a majority of the justices — including Chief Justice John Roberts — care about the court’s standing with the public and about their individual legacies.I also think Justice Kagan’s is right that the originalism sometimes applied by today’s court is often “not a very good match with the Constitution we have.”In fact, the founders themselves might not have agreed with it. Thomas Jefferson wrote — in words quoted on the wall of the Jefferson Memorial — that “laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind” and that as views and opinions change, “institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times.”I hope the public’s and Justice Kagan’s dissatisfaction with the Supreme Court will not be lost on the other members of the court. The court’s continuing legitimacy may depend on it.Walter SmithWashingtonThe writer is a lawyer who has argued cases before the Supreme Court and who practiced law with Chief Justice John Roberts before he joined the Supreme Court.Related ContentAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT