@MYOS1634 - I suspect each public university system will have their own definition of “affordable” or maybe that’s just an adjective used in the press release and not an actual requirement. Sadly, I don’t think the existence of the coalition or offer of membership will entice “elite public” schools to offer better financial aid. To be blunt, taxpayers and state politicians will see the equation as Coalition membership and higher taxes versus no Coalition and current (lower?) state subsidy to public universities, no higher taxes - I’m willing to bet they pick no higher taxes. I think most people believe their states still subsidize public universities to a much larger extent.
Looking at Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth System (the one with PSU, Temple, Pitt and Lincoln) system boggles my mind. They get less than 10% (?! - is that right?) from the state. OTOH, Pitt and PSU have quite the endowment for a quasi-pubilc university. They both already belong to the coalition so there’s no incentive to give more financial aid. Temple fails the graduation rate test.