which is most useful in understanding how the cost of a college education has risen?\n data and claims\n…

Brief Explanations:

To understand the rise in college - education cost, data is needed to measure the cost over time. Statistics helps in analyzing trends, patterns, and making inferences from the data. Claims alone are not sufficient as they lack the empirical basis. Social policy can influence costs but without data and statistics, it's hard to quantify the impact precisely.

Answer:

B. data and statistics