The board that oversees Oregon's public universities will roll out an ambitious plan this week to pay a significant chunk of college costs for thousands of students: an Oregon version of the GI Bill.

The board, at the urging of Gov. Ted Kulongoski, wants Oregon to create a trust fund for struggling students that would dole out grants equal to the average tuition at a state university -- about $4,600 this year. Unlike the GI Bill, the Oregon version wouldn't require military service, simply financial need.

The cost isn't known but probably would run into the tens of millions, in part because the proposal envisions help for middle-income Oregonians, not just the poor. Oregon voters could be asked as early as next year whether they want to write the trust fund into the Oregon Constitution.

Supporters frame the campaign as a matter of individual opportunity, an imperative to make higher education affordable to all Oregonians. Despite nearly 40 years of government aid, low-income students are far less likely to attend college than their wealthy or middle-class peers.

For Kulongoski and his advisers, the campaign also is economic and political strategy: More financial aid will mean more degrees. A better educated work force, the argument goes, will create and attract more businesses to invigorate a hobbled economy and sustain the state for years to come. And Kulongoski, who attended college with help from the GI Bill, may have a chance to craft a legacy as Oregon's education governor.

"We have to turn this into a conversation with average people in our state in which they come out thinking it's in their self-interest to absolutely fix this problem," former Oregon Gov. Neil Goldschmidt, president of the State Board of Higher Education, told higher education officials in March.

"If not, we are on our way to dumbing ourselves down to West Virginia," he said.

Finding the money is a formidable obstacle.

Rep. Susan Morgan, R-Myrtle Creek, who leads the House subcommittee that assembles the higher education budget, said any proposal that requires higher taxes or shifting money from other parts of the budget will face a rough road.

"I think it is easily recognizable that the more people we can get successfully through two- and four-year degree programs, the better it's going to be for the economy of the state," Morgan said. "The problem is how you're going to pay for it."

Tuition is going up all over

Nationwide, tuition and fees rose 14 percent last year at public universities and 6 percent at private schools. Oregon students will face more increases this fall.

Oregon is in the nation's basement when it comes to helping students pay for higher education. The state spent $5.81 in need-based grants per resident in 2002 compared with a national average of $13.57. Oregon's combination of rising tuition and low financial aid earned the state an "F" for affordability on a national watchdog group's higher education report card.

But the State Board of Higher Education -- most of its members were appointed by Kulongoski last fall -- is attempting to pull Oregon into a movement among states that are pouring more dollars into financial aid even as legislatures cut support to universities.

Oregon's state aid program, the Oregon Opportunity Grant, covers 11 percent of college costs and is available only to very low-income students -- for example, someone from a family of four that earns less than $31,000 a year. An estimated 21,000 eligible students were not awarded grants this year because the money ran out.

Kulongoski wants to beef up that effort to cover a larger portion of college costs for a wider range of students. Students could use the money to attend any accredited Oregon school, public or private. For low-income students, the annual grants could range up to $5,000, enough to cover tuition and fees at a public university. Students from some middle-class families may be eligible for a smaller percentage.

Kulongoski pitched a similar idea to the Legislature last year, but lawmakers didn't go for it.

No one behind the initiative can say how the state might pay for it. And voters would have to ratify writing such a guarantee into the constitution.

"I can't think of any better thing to campaign for," said Brian Clem, 31, who relied on an Oregon Opportunity Grant to attend Oregon State University.

Clem owns a Salem computer business and is chairman of the Oregon Student Assistance Commission. He spends a lot of time making the case to other business owners to expand state financial aid to students.

"Rather than having to lure all these companies in with tax breaks, you build your own human capital. . . . You don't have to recruit dreamers only from out of state," he said, alluding to Oregon's recently adopted slogan, "We Love Dreamers."

State support erodes

Financial aid was born in 1965 when Congress determined that low-income students deserved help to attend college and that the nation could benefit by ensuring they could attend.

Traditionally, states provided heavy subsidies to public universities so schools could keep tuition low. Students who couldn't afford the costs or who needed aid to attend private institutions received federal grants and loans. Since then, many states have created their own grants to help more students attend college.

Since 1980, however, state support as a total percentage of university budgets has declined. Schools have raised tuition to make up for the loss -- 47 percent in the last decade at public universities nationwide, according to The College Board.

Financial aid hasn't kept pace. In 1976, the maximum Federal Pell Grant -- considered the foundation of college aid -- covered 72 percent of the average price of attending a four-year public institution. Now it covers 34 percent.

Every penny is crucial to students such as Tina Cooper, 32, who wouldn't be at Portland State University without the help. About 62 percent of students in Oregon's seven public universities received federal need-based aid in 2003, up from 56 percent five years ago.

Cooper got pregnant near the end of her senior year at Lincoln High School and dropped out. After her first son was born, she earned her high school equivalency degree at Clackamas Community College, then spent much of her 20s in Seattle, earning a decent living but hating her job in credit management, collecting from debtors.

"I was earning a living, but it was as far as I could go without a degree," she said.

When a grandmother's illness brought her home to Portland, she re-enrolled at Clackamas Community College, then transferred to PSU to complete her bachelor's degree in sociology, along with prerequisites for medical school.

About that time, Cooper's husband, Kenneth, was laid off from his telecommunications job when his company shut down. The family's failing financial health -- they have four children -- caused her to leave school for six months, a common detour for low-income students.

Now back in class full time and on track to graduate in 2005, Cooper has received about $17,200 in financial aid this year, enough to cover tuition and mandatory fees (about $4,300 for the year), books ($1,200) and some living expenses.

Cooper receives a monthly stipend for her student government duties and works a part-time job off and on to cover what aid does not: rent, food, child care. Kenneth recently earned his real estate license. But for now, most of his commissions are sucked up by what he owes in startup fees to his agency, Cooper said.

She thinks all the time about quitting school again, earning a full paycheck, easing her family's strain. But she stays to pursue her dream: to become a doctor.

"With God's grace, I'll graduate," she said.

More than half of Cooper's aid is in federal loans that she will have to start paying back six months after she graduates. Nationally, about two-thirds of full-time undergraduates borrow to pay for school. Their average debt at graduation: $17,000.

Around the country, states and private institutions are taking steps to cut into that debt:

Washington estimates it will award about $114 million in need-based grants in 2003-04, compared with Oregon's $22 million payout. This fall, the University of Virginia will draw on its $2 billion endowment to replace loans with scholarships for some low-income students and cap debt for others.

Oregon must catch up, said Tim Nesbitt, a higher education board member who is president of the Oregon AFL-CIO.

"It's a two-fer," he said. "This is a case where individual opportunity overlays with economic development goals for our state."

The GI Bill was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to ensure that World War II veterans would have a shot at higher education. As for an Oregon version, many questions have yet to be answered -- including the price tag.

Oregon voters haven't approved a general tax increase since 1930, so trust fund supporters say they are focused on other options: revenue from the capital gains tax and contributions from private companies.

So far, none of the options is solid. Soon they must be. Board members are beginning this week to make their pitch to newspaper editorial boards, key legislators, Rotary clubs and other civic groups. In January, they will face the Legislature and ask lawmakers to send the question to voters.

Tyson Vanover isn't holding his breath. A 1998 Hillsboro High graduate, Vanover chose Portland Community College for its small classes and low cost. Six years later, he's still working on the credits he needs to transfer to PSU to earn a bachelor's degree in computer science.

Fearing debt, Vanover, 23, doesn't want to take out loans, so he has left school multiple times to earn money for more classes. It is too early to tell whether expanded state grant aid would affect students like him. But, he said, it's nice to think about.

"If I could go to school full time and that would be my life, I'd jump at that opportunity," he said. "I would be so there."