DATE: Monday, October 20, 1997              TAG: 9710200037

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Focus: Election '97 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW DOLAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   99 lines

AT ISSUE: FAMILY MAY MOVE TO N.C. TO LIGHTEN COLLEGE-TUITION BURDENS

Barbara Morris and her husband, John Larry, are thinking about leaving Virginia.

It's the state where she was born, raised and schooled and where her father's father started a lumber business that stayed in the family for 60 years.

The Morrises don't want to move, but they say the burden of college costs for their children may force them to uproot and cross into North Carolina and its reduced in-state tuition.

``I don't think we can send people to college for free,'' Barbara Morris said recently from the screened-in porch of her shady two-story home. ``But why does North Carolina have a better system of schools that are more affordable that what we have?''

Morris, who has been a nurse at Obici Hospital for 11 years, said the government and citizens need to take responsibility for making college education more affordable. She wants politicians to get specific about what they are going to do to make paying for college easier.

``In our state, the government doesn't seem to be doing a very good job in educating our citizens,'' she said. ``Sometimes they seem so focused on unemployment and welfare that there is not enough time or money for education.''

A graduate of the University of Virginia's nursing school, Morris admires the quality of education provided at Virginia's colleges and universities. But, so far, her daughters, Suzanne, 23, and Leigh Anne, 21, have chosen schools in North Carolina.

Virginia Tech offers opportunities for in-state students at reasonable prices, Morris said, but her daughter Suzanne was turned off by the size and the distant location of the university.

``I'm starting graduate school for a master's degree in January at ODU,'' said Suzanne, who graduated from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in 1996. ``And I want to know why there are not more incentives for students like me who want to improve their education.''

Barbara Morris said she wonders if state lottery revenues could be used to reduce the cost of state colleges. Maybe the recently enacted federal tax credits for families with college students could be expanded, she said.

``I used to teach nursing, so I like goals and objectives,'' Morris said. ``I want the candidates to let me see it on their blackboard, step by step, how they can help families send their kids to college.''

Morris' youngest child, Dinah, 16, wants to attend UNC at Wilmington but doesn't want to leave the state, either. She has two more years left at her Suffolk high school.

But Morris isn't sure yet, especially when she considers the sacrifices the family is making to pay out-of-state tuition - leaving home repairs undone, driving a 10-year-old family car and assuming additional debt from student loans. CANDIDATES RESPOND

Barbara Morris' question: I have two children who chose to attend colleges in North Carolina because of lower costs and wider selection of school size and academic programs. Why can't Virginia's colleges and universities offer the same quality of education at the considerably lower tuition prices for in-state tuition? What's different? BEYER

Donald S. Beyer Jr.: The difference is that North Carolina spends nearly $5,900 per student, while Virginia spends only $3,700.

Virginia ranks 43rd out of 50 in state funding for our colleges and universities, and we spend less educating students than nearly every one of our neighbors to the south. The result: We have the fifth-highest tuition level in the country.

To reach North Carolina's level of support of higher education, Virginia would have to spend $460 million more a year.

I have proposed a comprehensive plan to reward merit and to increase need-based financial aid, so that money is not a barrier to the opportunity of higher education. GILMORE

James S. Gilmore III: Virginia has the best system of colleges and universities in the nation. U.S. News and World Report ranks the University of Virginia as the best public university in the nation and ranks other Virginia institutions highly as well. I am committed to maintaining the excellence of Virginia's system of public higher education and to keeping a college education affordable for Virginians.

To maintain this affordability, I will maintain the freeze on college tuitions in Virginia. As other states raise their tuitions (Maryland recently raised tuitions approximately 4 percent), Virginia's will stay the same and eventually come into line with other state schools. I will also implement a New Century Scholars program to award $2,000 merit-based college scholarships to Virginia's top students to reduce the [cost of tuition]. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MARK MITCHELL/The Virginian-Pilot

Barbara Morris, left, sits with her daughter Suzanne. Morris and her

family are considering moving to North Carolina, where lower

in-state tuition costs would lighten their financial burden. Suzanne

graduated from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in

1996. KEYWORDS: ELECTION CANDIDATE CAMPAIGN FINANCING

GUBERNATORIAL RACE VIRGINIA

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