PROVIDENCE -- Crystal Fonseca put herself through college by borrowing $21,597.30, working 40 hours a week, and forgoing any kind of social life, extracurricular activities, "and at times, my sanity."
She applied for Pell Grants, too, but got only a few hundred dollars. And though she spent countless hours applying for more than 100 scholarships, she only got $600 in grants.
Now a graduate student, Fonseca teaches two public-speaking courses in exchange for a university grant, but she still has to work full-time to cover her bills. And so far, she's accrued $17,542.83 in credit-card debt.
Fonseca isn't enrolled at a pricey private college, but at the University of Rhode Island -- a school that's supposed to be affordable to all Rhode Islanders.
Yesterday, Fonseca told her story at a meeting called by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed to raise awareness of a growing national problem: Public colleges have become too expensive for low- and moderate-income students, and government-sponsored financial aid has declined.
At URI, tuition has risen by 12 percent in the last decade, from $3,153 a year to $3,521. State-supported grants to students, meanwhile, have shrunk by 51 percent, from an average of $229 per student to $112.
These days, URI President Robert L. Carothers said, almost 80 percent of what students pay to the university comes from financial aid, and the vast majority of it is borrowed money.
Those loans haunt URI graduates for years, even after they marry and have children they need to support, Carothers said.
But if things look dire now, they could get worse if President Bush gets his way, Reed warned:
The president's budget proposal would cut the maximum Pell Grant by $100, to $3,900, even though after accounting for inflation, the grants are already worth only about half as much as in 1979.
It would also eliminate the Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership (LEAP) program, which provides grants to states willing to match the money and give it to low-income students through need-based grants and work-study subsidies.
And it would level-fund the campus work-study program, Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants, Perkins Loans, and college preparation programs such as TRIO and GEAR-UP.
President Bush has also proposed to eliminate the federal fixed-rate student loan consolidation program, which last year allowed Rhode Islanders to consolidate 1,118 loans, saving tens of thousands of dollars.
"This is just bad policy -- not just education policy, but economic development policy, bad policy in general," Reed said.
Reed said he and fellow Democrats are trying to protect good programs and boost their budgets. They want to increase work-study support by $150 million, he said, and raise the maximum Pell Grant to $4,500.
"I can't think of a better investment to make in our future," the senator said.
Reed and others at the meeting, held at URI's Providence campus, cited two reports released on May 2 that they said highlight the need for more government support for colleges.
One, "Losing Ground," by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, shows that while in 1980, the average low-income family needed 13 percent of its income to cover a year's tuition at a public four-year college, by 2000 that figure had risen to 25 percent.
In 1986, the average federal Pell Grant award covered 98 percent of the average tuition at public four-year colleges and universities; by 1999, it covered only 57 percent.
The second report, "Slamming Shut the Doors to College," commissioned by Senate Democrats, shows that between fiscal 2002 cutbacks and fiscal 2003 trims, states have reduced aid to higher education by $5.5 billion.
The report estimates that higher tuitions could shut 110,000 poor students out of college next fall, and President Bush's student-aid budget would serve 375,000 fewer students.
Fonseca and two fellow URI students who spoke yesterday were familiar with the figures, and they argued strongly for a greater government investment in college financial aid.
"I think that the government has the responsibility to ensure that all that would like to attend [college] have the ability to do so," Fonseca said. Through hard work and the support of her family, she's close to finishing her doctorate, she added, and "I hope to never become one of the 375,000 people that George Bush is willing to leave behind."
"Losing Ground" is available online at http://www.highereducation.org. "Slamming Shut the Doors to College" is at http://www.senate.gov/jec/Documents/106th/Reports/HigherEd.htm.
