Tuitions up steeply nationwide

After graduating from a high school near Phoenix, Caleb Alvarado decided not to get a full-time job like many of his friends, but to become instead the first male member of his family to go to college.

By living at home, working 20 hours a week, and taking out a pile of student loans, he could afford to enroll at Arizona State University, rated the nation's lowest-tuition four-year public flagship, at $2,583 last year.

But the tuition tide is changing. Mr. Alvarado, now a senior, is not so sure he could afford to be a freshman at ASU today. A 39-percent tuition increase this fall will add $1,010 to the price of school - and to the $25,000 in student loans he expects to owe when he graduates. One of his friends recently dropped out because of the tuition hike.

Across the nation, students and parents are bracing for broad tuition increases that, at flagship universities, could be the largest in 30 years.

The result, experts worry, may be to price many low-income students out of college, departing from America's post-1945 view of public higher education as a key tool for promoting social equality and a broader middle-class.

The shift comes, moreover, at a time when education is an increasingly important ticket to good jobs.

"This is a potential crisis in the making in terms of having higher education opportunity available to those who need it the most: racial and ethnic minorities, first-generation students," says Travis Reindl, director of state policy at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, which represents 425 public four-year institutions.

The trend of tuition hikes runs nationwide. The State University of New York (SUNY) system has approved tuition of $4,350, up 28 percent over last year. Some students marched across the state in protest. Oklahoma State University is expecting a 24 percent hike.

In fact, public universities were planning tuition increases in all 38 states that responded to a recent survey by the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges. Double-digit rises are common, with at least 10 universities planning increases of 20 percent or more.

"For the large public flagship institutions nationwide ... these increases could be as large as any we've seen since 1973," says David Wright, a senior researcher at the State Higher Education Executive Officers, based in Denver.

A key reason for the tuition tsunami: Budget cuts by cash-strapped states. Their 1990s largess toward public higher education has already been slowing, and for the fiscal year 2003-04 their support for universities is poised to fall by 2 to 3 percent, experts say.

University systems are raising tuition to help fill the gap. They are also trying to boost financial aid, but rising costs will nonetheless squeeze many families.

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