By Nanette Asimov

As tuition steadily climbs at California’s public universities, low-income students turn to financial aid for help and high-income students turn to the family bank account.

But middle-class students, who do not qualify for financial aid, often have nowhere to turn and simply don’t enroll.

A state lawmaker is hoping that a tax break of up to $500 per year for each student from a family earning $80,001 to $140,000 would help.

“It won’t cover their entire costs, but it’s a positive step in the right direction to put more cash in the pockets of the working middle class,” said Assemblyman Jim Beall, D-San Jose, who introduced AB 1441 to benefit students at the University of California, California State University and the state’s community colleges.

If signed into law, the bill would allow a tax credit of up to $500 a year for each eligible student for such college expenses as tuition, fees, books and school equipment. Students could receive no more than $2,000 in credits over the course of their education, and the bill itself would expire after 2016.

Beall introduced the bill just weeks after UC Berkeley announced it would charge families in the same income bracket just 15 percent of their earnings rather than the full, in-state price of $32,634 that one year of school currently costs for tuition, room, board, books and fees. Depending on income, the price break would shave off 11 to 61 percent of a family’s bill.

The issue of middle-class affordability is a growing problem as the state has reduced funding for higher education by $2.65 billion since 2008, and university leaders have transferred the burden to students in the form of higher tuition.

A recent UC study showed that between 2004 and 2009, the number of UC undergraduates across all campuses rose in every income bracket but one: families earning $99,000 to $149,000. Such students declined by 9 percent, or nearly 3,000 students.

The study, called the Accountability Report, says the drop “could be due to middle-class families perceiving that UC is no longer affordable.”

Meanwhile, students from families earning less than $50,000 soared by more than 26 percent during the same period, or more than 11,000 students. Such students typically pay no tuition.

Students from families earning up to $99,000 increased by 5 percent (1,600 students), while those from families earning more than $149,000 rose by 24 percent (9,300 students).

UC Berkeley’s “Middle Class Access Plan” will cost $10 million to $12 million a year, to be funded mainly by enrolling more out-of-state students, who pay higher tuition and won’t qualify for the price break.

It’s not yet clear how much Beall’s tax credit would cost the state.

But Beall called a college education the “ticket to prosperity,” indicating his belief that the long-term economic benefit to families and California would outweigh the short-term cost.

— Reach Nanette Asimov at [email protected]

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