Mark Wrighton of Washington University, Elizabeth Stroble of Webster University, Zelema Harris of the St. Louis Community College system, and Brady Deaton of the University of Missouri-Columbia discuss college affordability at a conference organized by the Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis. Photo by Dan Donovan.

Raise the subject of how much it costs to go to college and be prepared to hear a lot of excuses.

For decades, increases in tuition “sticker price” been staggering. According to a 2008 report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, tuition and fees have risen 439 percent over the past 25 years. That’s more than four times the rise of the consumer price index and nearly three times the increase in median family income. Tuition and fees have risen even faster than the cost of health care, up 251 percent in the same 25 years.

But leaders of universities and colleges, public and private alike, claim that they’re doing everything in their power to help to make college affordable.

That was the message at a public forum Sunday from chancellors Mark Wrighton of Washington University, Brady Deaton of the University of Missouri-Columbia, Elizabeth Stroble of Webster University and Zelema Harris of the St. Louis Community College system. The forum was organized by the St. Louis Scholarship Foundation and held at the Center of Creative Arts.

Faith Sandler, longtime director of the St. Louis Scholarship Foundation, argues that no category of social investment is capable of transforming a person or family in a more profound and lasting way than investment in higher education.

No one doubts that. But now, only one in every four people in the St. Louis region 25 years old or older holds a college degree. For the good of the region, that must change.

But how do we pay for it? State lawmakers are staring at dwindling revenues, forced to choose between paying for higher education at public colleges, elementary and secondary public education, prisons, social services and health care for the needy. At private universities, tuition and fees sometimes exceed $40,000 a year, well out of the reach of all but a privileged few.

Advocates for higher education argue that politicians have been unreliable partners even in good times. But many of these same educators are less interested in cost controls at their institutions or talking about salaries paid at universities and colleges.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the number of college and university presidents earning more than $1 million a year grew to 23 in 2007-08, twice as many as in the preceding year. Webster University’s former president Richard S. Meyers was fourth on the private college list at $1.43 million, including a retirement package.

There’s plenty of blame to go around. But blame won’t educate the future work force. If we delay action on college access until the economy improves, legions of college-capable students will be left behind.

Even in the current economic climate, much can be done to dramatically improve college access.

• The St. Louis region could start by trying to figure out why college completion rates are so low — especially in Jefferson, Franklin and Warren Counties and parts of St. Charles County, where high school graduation rates are solid. This should be a major focus of the business community.

• Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education should better track students’ progress after they’ve graduated from high school. This would allow the state to gauge how well school districts are preparing students for college and how colleges and universities are doing once they get there.

• Colleges and universities must become advocates for prospective students. Too often they have other priorities — new facilities, building national reputations, angling to become players in major economic development projects and cutting-edge research. These are valuable. But getting students in and keeping them in should be Job 1. Job 1-A should be helping them pay for it. Too often, administrators leave students and families to navigate a brutally difficult financial aid system on their own.

• Parents, meanwhile, should insist on effective, individualized college counseling services. Students and their parents should be prepared to be aggressive and reach out for help.

Consider the work of the St. Louis Regional College Access Pipeline, a project led by Jane Donahue of the Deaconess Foundation and Ms. Sandler at the Scholarship Foundation, along with representatives from local philanthropies and student service organizations. Their 10-year goal is for at least half of the 25-and-older St. Louis population to have at least a two-year associate’s degree.

Their message to younger students is that college is attainable. They push hard on academic preparation, creating a “college-going climate” at local high schools. They work to streamline the financial aid process. And once a student has enrolled, they work to remove barriers to completing college.

Alumni and philanthropic contributors could have a huge impact. If they focused their giving exclusively on needs-based scholarships — even for just a year or two — it would send an unmistakable message that colleges and universities need to recalibrate their priorities.

Missouri’s economic future depends on getting more students into college and making sure they finish. Students need fierce advocates in their corner, people who won’t be steamrolled but who persistently and pointedly can insist that colleges and universities, school districts and policymakers do better.