Minnesota received an F in college affordability in a recent report, but received higher grades for preparation, participation and completion.

The state received B’s in student preparation, participation and benefits from a college degree and an A in college completion, according to the report Measuring Up 2008, completed by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. The report card uses a range of measurements to give states grades, from A to F, on the performance of their public and private colleges.

College has become less affordable for students and families in Minnesota, according to the report. All but one state flunked in college affordability.

Littlefork-Big Falls Superintendent Fred Seybert said it’s nice when a family can help a student attend college, but other options such as summer jobs, work study and grants are available to students.

Seybert said that his personal belief is that the responsibility for paying for college lies with the student and not the parents.

If Minnesota is putting students in a position where they can’t afford to attend college in the state, they are going to go to college out-of-state, he said.

“The state’s investment in need-based financial aid is very high when compared with top-performing states. Nonetheless, the share of family income, even after financial aid, needed to pay for college is very large when compared with other states, and Minnesota does not offer low-priced college opportunities,” the report stated.

The percentage of income needed to pay for a public two-year college increased from 16 percent in 1999-2000 to 25 percent in 2007-08. The percentage needed to pay for a public four-year college increased from 17 percent in 1999-200 to 30 percent in 2007-08. Seventy-six percent of college students in the state are enrolled in public colleges.

Low-income families have been hardest hit nationally.

For the 20 percent of Minnesota families with the lowest income, a median income of $12,638, a community college would cost 52 percent of the median income, a public four-year college would cost 66 percent of their income and a private four-year college would cost 127 percent of their income, according to the report.

The 20 percent of Minnesota families with the highest income, a median income of $127,183, would spend 8 percent of their income on community college, 10 percent on a public four-year college and 19 percent on a private four-year college, according to the report.

The problem seems likely to worsen as the economy does, said Patrick Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

Historically during downturns, “states make disproportionate cuts in higher education and, in return for the colleges taking them gracefully, allow them to raise tuition,” Callan said. “If we handle this recession like we’ve handled others, we will see that this gets worse.”

Although the state flunked affordability, it received a B on the number of residents attending college. No state failed in the participation category and about half earned A’s or B’s.

“The chance of Minnesota high school students enrolling in college by age 19 is very high,” the report stated. Since 1990, students enrolling in college by 19 years old has increased by 22 percent, compared to the U.S. average of an 8 percent increase.

The report also noted that 23 percent of Minnesota high school graduates leave the state to attend college and 2,222 more students are leaving the state than entering the state for college.

Minnesota received a B on student preparation because of the high percentage of Minnesotans who received a high school diploma. Minnesota, at 92 percent, is “well above” the U.S. average, but below the top states in preparation, according to the report. But the report noted that the percentage of Minnesotans receiving a high school diploma has decreased since the early 1990s.

Minnesota is among the top states in student performance on college entrance exams, but only a small percentage of Minnesota high school students score well on advanced placement exams, according to the report.

Minnesota was the only state to decline in the proportion of high school students enrolled in upper-level math and one of three states to decline in the proportion of students enrolled in upper-level science, the report stated.

Preparation

Seybert said students graduating from L-BF are prepared for college. The staff do an “excellent job” in preparing students to go on to college, if the student desires to.

He noted that there’s a misconception that students must attend a four-year college. Students have the option of attending vocational or technical colleges, he said. Although Seybert hasn’t seen a trend in Littlefork, he said he has seen students graduating from four-year schools who are then attending community colleges afterward to receive skills for employment.

The state received an A on completion as a result of an increase by 16 percent in the past 10 years of first-time, full-time college students earning a bachelor’s degree within six years.

However, the report noted that Minnesota has one of the largest gaps between racial and ethnic groups receiving college degrees. Thirty-seven percent of blacks and 51 percent of Hispanics graduate from a four-year college compared to 63 percent of whites.

The report also gave Minnesota a B in the benefits to the state for the number of residents who have a college degree. The report noted that with a large proportion of residents receiving bachelor’s degrees, residents “contribute substantially to the civic good, as measured by charitable giving and voting.”

In 2007, Minnesota scored 75 on the New Economy Index, which measures the extent to which a state is participating in knowledge based industries, according to the report. The nation-wide score was 62 on the index.

The report added that if all racial and ethnic groups in Minnesota attained the same education and earnings as whites, the total annual personal income in Minnesota would increase by $4 billion.

Callan said the United States is at best standing still while other countries pass it in areas like college enrollment and completion. And as higher education fails to keep up with population growth, the specter lurks of new generations less educated than their Baby Boomer predecessors.

“The educational strength of the American population is in the group that’s about to retire,” Callan said. “In the rest of the world it’s the group that’s gone to college since 1990.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.