Lawmakers, universities balance budgets with significant tuition hikes - DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP, Associated Press

As students around the country anxiously wait for college acceptance letters, their parents are sweating the looming tuition bills at public universities. Florida college students could face yearly 15 percent tuition increases for years, and University of Illinois students will pay at least 9 percent more. The University of Washington will charge 14 percent more at its flagship campus. And in California, tuition increases of more than 30 percent have sparked protests reminiscent of the 1960s.