New Brookings research indicates that inflation-adjusted net tuition at four-year colleges has fallen since 2019-20 when measured after scholarships and other discounts. The analysis, based on net-price calculations and proprietary data, challenges public perceptions that sticker prices necessarily represent what most students pay. Brookings’ findings show declines across income levels and institution types, with the largest decreases reported for lower-income families. For example, the analysis cites that inflation-adjusted net tuition for students with family incomes around $85,000 at public flagships and R1 universities fell 9.6% to $24,400 by 2025-26. The research also highlights that net tuition is often obscured by discounting variation and by limitations within net price calculators, suggesting that comparisons across campuses can be technically imperfect. For higher education professionals, the policy and messaging implication is practical: affordability strategies—grant packaging, federal aid utilization, and institutional scholarship commitments—may be improving affordability even as headlines continue to focus on sticker tuition increases.