Students in the Midwest can face particularly significant financial barriers when paying for college, according to a new analysis from the National College Attainment Network. 

The college-access nonprofit looked at Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin to measure unmet financial need for students in the region. In every one of those states except Illinois and Minnesota, the difference between what students owe and what they can afford to pay when going to college is greater than the national average of $1,555, according to the analysis. 

Students attending public universities in two of the states — Ohio and Wisconsin — have affordability gaps of more than twice that national average. Our reporters in those places, Amy Morona at Signal Ohio and Natalie Yahr at Wisconsin Watch dug deeper into these findings this week. 

The nonprofit considers a college affordable if the total cost of attendance (plus $300 for emergencies) is less than or equal to the average amount they receive in scholarships, grants, student loans, summer wages, and family contributions. 

None of the public universities in Wisconsin or Ohio are considered affordable, according to the analysis. Students at four-year universities in Wisconsin faced a $3,549 gap and those in Ohio saw a $5,138 gap — both far above the national average. 

“Affordability gaps shouldn't be the barrier that is blocking students from achieving a bachelor's degree, if that's the path that they are hoping to pursue,” Louisa Woodhouse, a senior associate with NCAN and author of the Great Lakes report, told Amy at Signal.

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Nearly 90% of Wisconsin’s technical colleges were unaffordable, according to the analysis. A spokeswoman told Wisconsin Watch’s Natalie that the report raises valid concerns about affordability, but said the study may not accurately reflect students at the state’s tech colleges, who are often working full-time and going to school part-time. 

++ Long wait for a dental appointment? Wisconsin tech colleges are working to fix that (by Miranda Dunlap at our partner Wisconsin Watch)

Meanwhile, Illinois colleges are more affordable because of the state’s relatively high investment. Just about a quarter of funding for public higher ed in the state comes from net tuition revenue, compared to 48.5% on average in the rest of the Midwest, according to the analysis.

The study also highlighted Minnesota’s free-tuition program, North Star Promise, for helping make its four-year institutions more affordable than the national average. We wrote about North Star Promise last year, in partnership with MinnPost. To qualify, families must earn less than $80,000 a year. The state recently announced the program helped 53,000 Minnesotans last year. 

North Star Promise, like many other promise programs, is what’s known as “last-dollar,” meaning it will close whatever gap exists between a student’s tuition bill and the aid they’ve already received. In our reporting we found that students still struggled with costs that aren’t covered by the program, such as on-campus housing. 

The group also called on states to increase higher-ed funding. When colleges are forced to rely heavily on net tuition revenue, the burden is passed on to families. But cuts to federal safety-net programs put pressure on state budgets — often leading to higher-ed funding cuts, NCAN warned, saying “now is the time for states to bolster their investments.”

Elsewhere on Open Campus

From California: Jobs in California’s fossil fuel industry are disappearing, leaving its workers unlikely to find another one that pays as well. Many of them lack a college degree and Trump’s tax cuts for oil and gas companies are neither going to save their jobs nor create opportunities to train for new ones, writes Adam Echelman at our partner CalMatters.

“You have people earning between $80,000 to $200,000 a year, and almost everyone is a high school graduate and that’s it,” said Wilfredo Cruz, a worker at the Phillips 66 refinery complex who expects to lose his job in the coming months. “To go out and look for another job that’s even somewhat comparable, it just doesn’t exist.”

The state has set up a $30 million pot of money to help train refinery workers for new jobs. Cruz is using those funds to cover the tuition costs of an online, year-long cybersecurity program he’s enrolled in at the University of California San Diego.

From Chicago: Lisa Kurian Philip at our partner WBEZ investigated University of Illinois campuses paying a for-profit company, known as an online program manager, for each student it recruits to online programs. Critics of the practice say these companies prey on vulnerable students by using high-pressure sale tactics and inflated job placement data.

“The student thinks they are talking to someone who is giving academic or enrollment advice like you would expect from an admissions counselor, but really they’re talking to a salesperson whose only goal is to close the deal,” said Stephanie Hall, a fellow with the consumer advocacy group Protect Borrowers who has researched these companies. “So it’s not necessarily going to get that [student] information about whether that degree is a fit for what they need in life.”

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