HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania is among 43 states that fail to make college affordable, according to a report on the quality of higher education released Thursday.

Even though the state has increased the amount of money it spends on need-based financial aid since 1992, families still spend much of their income paying for both public and private colleges, the report by the nonprofit National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education found.

A state Education Department spokesman said the findings were misleading, however, because the report combines the cost of attending Pennsylvania's 14 state-owned universities with the higher cost of four other "state-related " universities that receive state funding, but are not state-owned.

Slippery Rock is one of those 14 universities.

The biennial report card grades each of the 50 states on factors such as college affordability, students' readiness for college and the rate at which students graduate on time.

Minus financial aid, community college costs amount to 26 percent of an average Pennsylvania family's income, while the price of attending four-year public colleges and universities amounts to 39 percent, the report said. Families need 75 percent of their income to pay for private colleges.

Low-income and lower-middle-income families, which earn an average of $21,595 per year, need 40 percent of their income to pay for community college and 59 percent for public colleges and universities, the report found.

Patrick Callan, president of the center, said the trend of college costs outpacing increased government spending on financial aid is happening in Pennsylvania and nationwide.

"Pennsylvania is going to have to combine its increased commitment to financial aid with finding ways to get the cost trajectory under control so tuition doesn't eat that up," Callan said.

Education Department spokesman Kirk Wilson said the net tuition cost of 14 State System of Higher Education universities has declined by 9 percent over the past four years — from $2,163 to $1,975 a year — thanks to an expansion of college grants available through the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency.

In the 2002-03 school year, state system tuition for Pennsylvania students averaged $4,378 annually, while the average PHEAA grant was $2,215, Wilson said. For the current school year, annual state system tuition is $5,038, while the average PHEAA grant is $3,063, he said.

The state-related schools are the University of Pittsburgh and Lincoln, Temple and Penn State universities. Yearly tuition for Pennsylvania undergraduates at those schools ranges from $5,420 at Lincoln to $15,032 for all junior and some senior nursing students at Penn State.

Undergraduate Pennsylvania college students borrow an average of $3,827 a year to help pay for college, compared to $2,991 a year in 1992, the report found.

The state's best grade was an "A" in completion, reflecting its strength in retaining students and ensuring that they graduate on time. The report found that 58 percent of first-year community-college students return for their second year and 81 percent of freshmen at four-year schools return for their sophomore year.

Sixty-three percent of incoming freshmen received a bachelor's degree within six years of entering college.