The American student-aid system has long been based on a tacit promise to provide students with the means to complete their college education and ensure that money is not a barrier to getting a degree. Unfortunately, says the writer, student aid has become little more than a marketing mechanism that permits colleges to maximize tuition dollars through spiraling price discrimination. Because institutions have tailored their prices to fit their own particular circumstances, financial aid has morphed into a "debt for diploma" system that fosters ever-rising tuitions, fees, and room-and-board charges, while placing many colleges and universities beyond the financial reach of qualified and promising high-school seniors. While acknowledging that a problem that has developed over decades will also take time to solve, the writer urges that a solution must be found, but that modifying the current system will not address the tuition problem. What is needed, writes Ronstadt, are new strategies that are not predicated on a system that uses financial-aid packages to maximize tuition dollars. Fundamentally sound business practice, the author advocates, would be fair, transparent, good public policy, and a sound public investment.