More Family Income Committed to College
The study found that, on average, poor families spent 25 percent of their annual income for their children to attend public four-year colleges in 2000, compared with 13 percent in 1980. For middle-class families, the percentage of annual income required to attend public colleges nearly doubled as well, to about 7 percent from 4 percent. For the wealthiest families, there was no increase from the 2 percent spent in 1980.

While the average amount each state spent on higher education per student rose by 13 percent over that period, to $6,747, state institutions raised their tuition and fees by 107 percent, to $3,512, the study found.

"All of these trends are unhealthy for the future of educational opportunity in this country," said Patrick M. Callan, the president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education in San Jose, Calif., which commissioned the study with the support of the Ford Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts. "If we continue at this pace for the next 10 to 20 years, we'll choke off a lot of opportunity."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/02/education/02TUIT.html?todaysheadlines