Seattle's Ivy League-Style Public University May Boost Fees 78%

June 24 (Bloomberg) -- College guides list the University of Washington as one of the ``public Ivies,'' a state school that approaches the academic quality of the eight private institutions of the Ivy League for a fraction of the price.
The gap may be narrowing. In Washington's capital of Olympia, Governor Christine Gregoire is considering boosting annual tuition at the Seattle school to $10,000 for state residents, a 78 percent jump from the $5,610 they pay now.
Rising enrollment and declining state funding have forced big increases at other U.S. public universities, where tuition has risen faster in the past decade than private rivals such as Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The schools are trying to soften the blow by boosting financial aid. Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio, now charges $21,000 annually, with state residents eligible for a scholarship of as much as $12,700.
Opponents question whether aid will keep pace. At her office in North Seattle, state Representative Phyllis Kenney says she's already receiving e-mail from concerned students and parents.
``What sounds great on paper doesn't always work in reality,'' says Kenney, head of the state House of Representatives' Higher Education Committee. Kenney adds that she is concerned a tuition increase will hurt middle-class students whose parents make too much to qualify for some types of aid.
Tuition has risen 51 percent in the past decade at four-year public schools, compared with 36 percent at private schools, according to the New York-based College Board. At $5,132, average tuition for public universities is still one-quarter that of private schools.

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