The state survey on college costs, scrapped during the recession, was revived last year after a decade in which the commission relied on outdated figures to create the sample student budgets that many colleges use to calculate their cost of attendance.
More than 150,000 students at the University of California, California State University, private colleges and community colleges received the surveys, created with the independent research firm Mathematica and funded by the College Futures Foundation. About 15,000 responded. More than 30% said they did not have enough money to pay for housing, while another 35% said the same for books and supplies.
“California is a relatively low-tuition state, but we know that our cost of living is higher and because of those other costs, our students are struggling,” said David O’Brien, the commission’s director of government affairs.
The survey also found higher rates of food and housing insecurity than prior studies at California colleges. Thirty-five percent of respondents were classified as food insecure after responding yes to questions such as, “In the last 30 days, did you ever cut the size of your meal or skip your meal because there wasn’t enough money for food?”
California officials had conducted the survey every three years since the 1970s, but placed it on hold after 2007. Since then, the commission has used data from old surveys, adjusted for inflation, to calculate student budgets. Critics said that method undercounted students’ expenses during a time when the cost of living in California was skyrocketing. The numbers matter because they help determine how much state financial aid students can receive.
Under the old method, for example, the estimated monthly housing cost for a student living with their family in the 2020-21 school year would have been $369. The survey put it at $509.
“Often policymakers operate under the assumption that if a student is living at home, they’re not going to have any housing costs,” said O’Brien. “But the reality for our students is many times they’re contributing to the family income.”
There was some good news for students: The average yearly cost of textbooks and supplies fell by about half from last year’s estimate, to $1,080. Colleges are increasingly trying to reduce those costs by offering digital texts, book rentals and other low-cost options.