Public Colleges

Anngie Gutierrez was a child when she arrived in the United States as an illegal immigrant 10 years ago. There's still no path to legal status for her, but in Maryland and a handful of other states, there is a more affordable road to college. Gutierrez, a high school junior in Hyattsville, Md., will benefit from a new state law that allows illegal immigrants who reside there to pay in-state tuition rates at Maryland's public colleges. If she lived in Virginia, about 15 miles to the west, she would find that many public colleges require undocumented students to pay out-of-state tuition.

While her classmates agonize over which college to attend, high school senior Samantha Morgan is passing up offers from Cal State campuses in Long Beach and San Jose. She is heading out of California to avoid overcrowded classes and other state budget problems. And she can afford it thanks to a little-known program that offers discounts at public colleges and universities to students from 15 states, most of them in the West. Morgan is taking advantage of the Western Undergraduate Exchange to enroll at Northern Arizona University this fall.

Illegal immigrants who graduated from state high schools can continue to receive lower, in-state tuition at California's public universities and colleges, the California Supreme Court decided unanimously Monday. The ruling is the first of its kind in the nation. California is one of 10 states that permit undocumented immigrants to receive in-state tuition, which can save them $23,000 a year at the University of California. "Throughout the country, the California court decision will have reverberations," said Daniel J. Hurley, director of state relations and policy analysis for the American Assn.

Jack Scott, a veteran and popular educator who has headed the state's community college system during a period of brutal budget cuts and was often a voice decrying the impact on students, announced Tuesday that he will retire as chancellor overseeing the 112 campuses. Scott, 78, became chancellor of the nation's largest community college system in January 2009 after a long career as a state legislator and college campus leader, giving him rare insights into both politics and academia.

Steep funding cuts to higher education in California and elsewhere were significant factors in pushing average tuition and fees up 8.3% at four-year public colleges and universities nationwide this fall, according to a report by the nonprofit College Board. California's public universities enacted the highest average tuition increase, 21%, of any state, the annual study on college costs found. The state enrolls a tenth of the nation's public four-year college students. But even excluding California, tuition prices at such colleges rose significantly nationwide this year, an average of 7%, the College Board found.

While her classmates agonize over which college to attend, high school senior Samantha Morgan is passing up offers from Cal State campuses in Long Beach and San Jose. She is heading out of California to avoid overcrowded classes and other state budget problems. And she can afford it thanks to a little-known program that offers discounts at public colleges and universities to students from 15 states, most of them in the West. Morgan is taking advantage of the Western Undergraduate Exchange to enroll at Northern Arizona University this fall.

In-state tuition at four-year public colleges for the 2007-08 school year was up 6.6%, a faster increase than last year, according to the College Board's annual survey of higher-education expenses released Monday. Average total in-state charges -- including tuition, room and board and other costs -- for public colleges rose to $13,589 a year. At private colleges, they rose to $32,307, said the board, a nonprofit research group.

Enrollment in California public colleges and universities decreased 8% in the past year because of student fee increases, fewer class offerings and budget cuts, a San Jose-based research group reported Thursday. The drop of more than 160,000 students was the steepest for any state and shows that the "message of discouragement" is replacing the historic open-door promise at California community colleges, Cal State and the University of California, said Patrick M.

State budget cuts and declines in philanthropy and endowments helped push the cost of college tuition up much higher than general inflation across the country this year, amounting to an increase of 7.9% at public campuses and 4.5% at private ones, according to a new study by the nonprofit College Board. Tuition and fees for the current school year average $7,605 for state residents at public four-year colleges and $27,293 at private institutions, according to the report released Thursday.

At a time when California's public colleges are battling to maintain state funding, a report says that over a five-year period, the state spent nearly half a billion dollars to educate first-year college students who dropped out before their sophomore year. The report found that California ranked first in the nation in the amount of taxpayer funds ? $467 million ? spent on students at four-year colleges who failed to return for a second year. Texas, with $441 million, and New York, with $403 million, ranked second and third.

Steep funding cuts to higher education in California and elsewhere were significant factors in pushing average tuition and fees up 8.3% at four-year public colleges and universities nationwide this fall, according to a report by the nonprofit College Board. California's public universities enacted the highest average tuition increase, 21%, of any state, the annual study on college costs found. The state enrolls a tenth of the nation's public four-year college students. But even excluding California, tuition prices at such colleges rose significantly nationwide this year, an average of 7%, the College Board found.

For most of the 20th century, California led the nation — and the world — in the number of high school graduates who went on to college and earned degrees. Its famed public higher education system profoundly shaped the aspirations of the state's citizens and, ultimately, their views on what it meant to be a Californian. That system also attracted talent from throughout the nation and the world, and it helped build and sustain an entrepreneurial spirit that shaped new sectors of the state's economy — from microchips to biotechnology.

"Aarakshan" (Reservation) is a splendid example of how Bollywood's skilled way with melodrama helps make entertaining a lengthy exploration of a very serious and complex issue that has universal resonance. Director Prakash Jha and co-writer Anjum Rajabali set their epic-scale story in the late 1990s, when India's supreme court decreed that 49.5% of college admissions to public institutions be reserved for students from the lower castes. This stirring film boasts but a single song-and-dance number, well integrated early in the film, and several songs on the soundtrack that effectively express "Aarakshan's" concerns.

Thousands of teenagers living in California illegally were brought to this country by their parents as young children. Some of them have worked hard and done well in school; on both human and practical grounds, it would be wrong to put a college education out of financial reach by requiring them to pay higher, non-resident tuition to attend the state's public colleges. It wouldn't just be bad for the students themselves, who bear no responsibility for their illegal status. The public also loses when it pays for a bright student's education through high school but then does not allow that student to become a college-educated adult capable of contributing more fully to the economy and society.

Anngie Gutierrez was a child when she arrived in the United States as an illegal immigrant 10 years ago. There's still no path to legal status for her, but in Maryland and a handful of other states, there is a more affordable road to college. Gutierrez, a high school junior in Hyattsville, Md., will benefit from a new state law that allows illegal immigrants who reside there to pay in-state tuition rates at Maryland's public colleges. If she lived in Virginia, about 15 miles to the west, she would find that many public colleges require undocumented students to pay out-of-state tuition.

California's public higher education leaders warned Monday that additional tuition increases could be in store this fall if legislators or voters reject Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to extend several recent tax hikes. And even if the tax proposal is approved, the educators said, they expect some academic programs to be eliminated next year. University of California President Mark G. Yudof, California State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed and California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott appeared before a state legislative panel in Sacramento to discuss Brown's plan to cut $1.4 billion from higher education funding.

Pick one: public or private? A fundraising organization can't occupy space at a public university, share its employees and equipment and, in at least one instance, be led by the university president, then claim that it's a private entity whose doings are exempt from public disclosure laws. There have been many reasons over the last several years to question the nonprofit foundations and auxiliaries that drum up money and support for California's public colleges and universities.

Many public colleges and universities around the country are caught in financial squeezes, prompting midyear tuition increases and belt-tightening measures such as enrollment caps and faculty cuts. The financial problems stem from strains on state budgets due to the slow national economy over the last year and a bulge in the number of youths reaching college age.

Illegal immigrants who graduated from state high schools can continue to receive lower, in-state tuition at California's public universities and colleges, the California Supreme Court decided unanimously Monday. The ruling is the first of its kind in the nation. California is one of 10 states that permit undocumented immigrants to receive in-state tuition, which can save them $23,000 a year at the University of California. "Throughout the country, the California court decision will have reverberations," said Daniel J. Hurley, director of state relations and policy analysis for the American Assn.

Tens of thousands of students waving placards and chanting anti-government slogans marched through central London on Wednesday to protest plans to triple university costs as part of Britain's radical deficit-reduction program. Organizers said about 50,000 students marched through the streets and around the Houses of Parliament, including small breakaway groups that vandalized a government building, to show their outrage at plans to raise the cost of studying at a public university to about $14,000 a year.