，全美各州立學院和大學準備今秋實施10 年來最巨幅的調升學雜費，亞利桑納大學的漲幅達39%，加州大學更達40%，這是州財務危機迫使多數州長和議會在今年大幅削減對高等教育補助的最新後果。

世界日報消息，據悉，大學主管擔心很多中低收入學生將被迫就讀社區學院或根本放棄高等教育，因為聯邦財務補助和多數州的補助計畫趕不上學費上漲的步調。同時年輕成人的工作市場低迷，而更多學生卻需工作才能讀大學。

學費大漲的效應，將是把高等教育的成本從州政府轉嫁至州政府內居民學生和其家庭的身上。

雖然包括紐約、奧克拉荷馬和華盛頓在內的一些州，對中低收入家庭增加財務補助以支付部分或全部的學費漲幅，但很多州并未改變補助。另外一些州，包括田納西和麻州，減少按需要頒發的補助，聲稱財務危機使它們別無選擇。最大規模的聯邦贈款計畫「斐爾贈款」(Pell Grant)并未提升最高補助金額。

學雜費上漲之後，很多州立大學的學費和食宿費一年將逾萬元。「美國州立大學及學院協會」發現，去年主要州立大學的學費和食宿費平均不到六千元。

該協會的調查顯示，到目前為止回應調查的37 州公立學校都調漲學費，而且幾乎都是州預算削減的結果。

只有蒙大拿、新墨西哥州和夏威夷州三州的漲幅不到5%。根據「美國州立大學及學院協會」，這在24 州是連續第二年削減高等教育預算，由於各州收入沒有好轉的跡象，明年可能又會再來一輪調高學費。

華盛頓郵報原文如下:

washingtonpost.com States Plan Big Tuition Increases Budget Woes Lift College Costs As Much as 40%

By Dale Russakoff and Amy Argetsinger Washington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, July 22, 2003; Page A01

State colleges and universities in every region of the country arepreparing to impose this fall their steepest tuition and fee increases in adecade -- the latest fallout of state fiscal crises in which most governorsand legislatures this year sharply reduced aid to higher education.

Recently announced tuition increases for in-state students of as much as 21percent in Maryland and almost 30 percent in Virginia over last fall'slevels are larger than those in many states, but still well behindincreases in states with even larger budget gaps. Tuition and fees at theState University of New York and the University of Oklahoma are risingabout as much as those at the University of Virginia, but they are rising39 percent at the University of Arizona and 40 percent at the University ofCalifornia.

The pattern marks a reversal from the boom times of the late 1990s, whenstate tax collections soared and most governors dramatically raised aid topublic colleges and universities, which educate two-thirds of the nation'sfour-year college students. Some states, including Virginia, froze or evenrolled back in-state tuition; others, including Maryland, kept increases toa minimum.

Like most of their counterparts, Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R)and Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) lifted tuition limits in the face ofrecord budget gaps. Tuition and fees at the University of Maryland atCollege Park will be $6,759 this fall ($1,089 more than last year), and atthe University of Virginia, $5,968 ($1,370 more than last fall). In dollarterms, those increases are among the nation's highest.

Governors and lawmakers in several states said they cut state aid to highereducation reluctantly, but did so knowing that colleges and universitiescould raise money from other sources, including tuition.

University officials voiced concern that many lower- and moderate-incomestudents now will be pushed into community colleges or out of highereducation because federal financial aid and most state aid programs are notkeeping pace with rising tuition. Meanwhile, the job market for youngadults is dismal, and more students need to work to afford college.

"It is curious that national and state political leaders are so interestedin ensuring access to and quality in K-12 education, yet once you get tohigher education, the interest in accessibility seems to fall off," saidCharles Hoslet, director of state relations for the University of Wisconsinsystem, where tuition on flagship campuses is going up 18 percent.

David W. Breneman, dean of the Curry School of Education at the Universityof Virginia, said the shift represents a largely unacknowledged nationalpolicy decision, as states react one by one to the most serious fiscalcrises in decades. The effect, he and others said, is to shift the cost ofhigher education away from states, onto in-state students and theirfamilies.

"They're just balancing budgets, and this is the fallout, and nobody isasking, 'What about our future?' " said Joni E. Finney, vice president ofthe National Center for Public Policy in Higher Education in San Jose.

Some states, including New York, Oklahoma and Washington, are increasingfinancial aid to cover some or all tuition increases for lower- andmoderate-income families, but many, including Maryland and Virginia, madeno changes. And several, including Tennessee and Massachusetts, reducedneed-based aid, saying the fiscal crisis left them no alternative. Thelargest federal grant program, the Pell Grant, is not increasing itsmaximum award.

With the increases, tuition and room and board at many state universitiesis now more than $10,000 a year. The National Association of StateUniversities and Land-Grant Colleges found that room and board at majorstate universities last year averaged a little less than $6,000.

Students interviewed last week in several states had reactions ranging fromannoyance to despair, depending on their financial circumstances. MichaelHansen, who faces a $570 tuition increase at Maryland's SalisburyUniversity, where he will be a junior this fall, said he already works twojobs -- at the library and delivering Chinese food -- to help his parentspay his tuition, and now "will have to work a little harder so that I canremain a member of academia and not a full-time delivery boy at some randomChinese restaurant."

The stakes are higher for University of Iowa senior Mayrose Wegmann, one ofeight children of a single mother who earns the minimum wage working at acoffee shop. Wegmann already has more than $24,000 in debt, works more than40 hours a week, doubles up with three students in a two-bedroom apartment,does without cable TV and long-distance service and walks rather thandriving or riding the bus. She also receives the maximum Pell Grant of$4,000, which isn't going up, although her tuition and fees will increasealmost $900 this fall -- for a combined increase of 55 percent more thanwhen she was a freshman. She said her options are to work even more hoursor go further into debt.

"It's disheartening for anyone from my background to see these increases,because we know how important a higher education is," said Wegmann, apolitical science major. "We're all working harder and harder to pay ourway, but we're not getting a better education. In fact, we're getting aworse education because the time we have to study is so limited."

A survey by the National Association of State Universities and Land-GrantColleges found tuition rising at public institutions in all 37 states thathave responded so far, almost all as a result of state budget cuts.Increases were less than 5 percent in only three states -- Montana, NewMexico and Hawaii.

This is the second consecutive year of higher education budget cuts in 24states, according to the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, and with no sign of an upturn in state revenue, another roundis likely next year. Many states have raised tuition two years in a row.

In Minnesota, the state colleges and universities system recently approved 12.5 percent increases for this September and September 2004, which willmean four consecutive years of double-digit tuition increases for in-statestudents. The legislature increased need-based grants by 17 percent overthe past two years, but officials said some financial-aid students stillwill pay more.

While public colleges are still far more affordable than their privatecounterparts, unpredictable costs are a growing issue. Karen Kielbasa, whois putting herself through Virginia Tech, where she will be a senior, saidshe could handle last year's 9 percent increase and this year's 7.6 percentboost -- she simply took out larger loans -- but was blindsided by theschool's decision to raise tuition in the middle of the year by about $400a semester.

She said she had to double the hours she worked in the campus library andat a horse stable -- from 15 to 30 a week -- while taking 15 credits.

Elizabeth Hust, who is paying her own way through the University ofWisconsin with financial aid and an almost 40-hour work week, said shecannot afford to finish her five-year program for a bachelor of fine artsdegree. With tuition increasing $700 this fall, she said, she will haveenough money for only one more year of college and will drop out in thespring, work full-time and finish her degree part-time over the next fewyears.

Meanwhile, she may profit from her privation. She has reduced her foodbudget to $40 a month by eating a lot of rice and making her own bread andpasta -- a regimen she is detailing in a cookbook for students that sheplans to call "How to Survive on Literally Nothing."

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