Paying the Price for Getting In to College

April 30, 2005 — -- "You've been accepted."

Those are three of the most exciting words for a high school senior this time of year … until reality sets in -- in the form of the price tag.

College on $18,000 a Year?

Rhonda Stevens of Newport News, Va., who makes $18,000 a year as a social worker's aide, doesn't know how to make ends meet with her second daughter on her way to college.

Her daughter Whitney is an honors student at Heritage High School who will be getting a federal loan of $1,500 a semester. The cheapest college she got into costs more than double that.

"I wasn't reluctant she was going to get accepted because I knew her grades were great, but the whole thing was, 'Can I afford to send her to school?' " Stevens said. "Every time I turn around, something else comes up. I didn't know I'd have to come out of pocket for book money. … When I was thinking about tuition and other fees, I thought the other fees were books."

It's a huge burden for millions of parents across the country. The average cost of tuition at a public college has gone up 178 percent since 1980, according to a recent study of consumer price increases by The Christian Science Monitor.

Even with loans and government assistance, the average low-income student faces a $4,000 gap between their student aid and the cost of college, according to the National Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance.

Lee Vreeland, the guidance counselor at the Achievable Dream program for low-income students in Newport News, said over the years she's seen the problem get worse.

"Because tuition is rising, and the financial aid packages [aren't enough] -- there's a gap, and the gap is growing," she said.

'We Need to Care More'

Since 1973, the Pell grant has become the cornerstone of the federal government's student aid. Each year, millions of low-income Americans apply for assistance through the program, which provides a maximum of $4,050 per year -- just a fraction of the cost of most colleges.

The level of the Pell grant has been frozen for three years, even as tuition costs have increased. But in his 2006 budget, President Bush proposes to raise the Pell grant by $100 a year for the next five years. Some complain that's not nearly enough.

"We need to have bigger Pell grants, and we need to care more about young people -- low-income young people -- going to college, " said Julianne Malveaux, an economist and author. "We need to make sure that anyone who qualifies for college has the money to pay for it."

Nationwide, 90 percent of high school graduates from families earning more than $80,000 per year attend college by age 24, while 60 percent from families earning less than $33,000 attend, according to a report by the Century Foundation, a policy institute in Washington.

Rhonda Stevens plans to take on a second job at night. Whitney will work in the school cafeteria.

"I want to be a nurse." Whitney Stevens said. "That's my dream and I would hate for my dream to not come true. It would break my heart."