Public Colleges

"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.

For three years, state Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) has fought to win approval of what should have been simple: He wanted certain private college foundations — the "auxiliaries" that raise money for California public colleges and universities — to be bound by the state's open records laws. Happily, he's at last able to report success. It comes after years of work during which the universities fought him, insisting that donors would stop giving if their names were to be made public.

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.

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.

Ending a decades-long tradition, the California State University plans to start using the word "tuition" instead of "fees" to refer to the educational costs it charges to students. The move marks a fundamental philosophical shift in the ideal of offering Californians a tuition-free public college education, a principle enshrined in the state's master plan for higher education adopted 50 years ago. California students have long paid fees for specialized or optional services such as health, housing and recreation.

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.