Oct 23, 2007 3:00 AM by Dena Levitz, The Examiner

WASHINGTON - On average, tuition and fees at D.C.’s private colleges are the fourth highest in the nation, according to a state-by-state comparison in a College Board report released Monday.

In terms of tuition and fees, the only states with higher average private school costs than the District, whose average is just below $29,000, are Massachusetts, Connecticut and California.

The District’s private schools averaged an 8 percent increase.

At four-year private colleges, tuition and fees rose 6.3 percent nationally to average $23,712.

For private colleges in Virginia, the rate is $21,454, a 5 percent increase over last year, and in Maryland, the state average is $28,247, a jump of 7 percent.

College tuition nationally is up 6.6 percent at public schools this academic year over last, the report found.

Maryland public universities are experiencing a mere 1 percent increase in tuition from a year ago with an average of $7,304, while Virginia public universities are charging their students 7 percent more than last fall at $7,005 and D.C.’s ask for $3,770, a 17 percent increase, according to the report.

Gabe Pendas, president of the 1.3 million-member U.S. Student Association, said his organization is particularly troubled by findings in the report that tuition is going up at a faster rate than student aid, meaning affordability is an ongoing challenge.

“It affirms the trend that we see every day of the cost of college really being shifted from the government to the students and the families,” he told The Examiner. “And it doesn’t mean we’re getting new services or programs. In some cases, universities are raising prices and slashing student services.”

D.C. is home to the most expensive private institution in the nation, George Washington University.

Late last week, the university’s president, Steven Knapp, told the Board of Trustees he “wasn’t comfortable” with the nearly $40,000 tuition rate being paid by students and has asked the board to look at affordability, according to spokeswoman Tracy Schario.

This year, 60 percent of the school’s 9,500 undergraduates are receiving institutional aid at an average of $20,000 annually, she said.

At neighboring Georgetown University, public information officer Julie Green Bataille said tuition increases have hovered around 6 percent for years and are driven by ongoing operating cost increases for such things as health care and utilities.

Of the approximately 6,000 undergraduates, 55 percent are on financial aid.