A DRAMATIC rise in international students enrolled at Washington's public universities and colleges at a time when in-state students struggle to get in or are jammed into huge lecture halls are the consequences of the state's disinvestment in higher education.

Do the math: International and out-of-state students pay two to three times as much in tuition as in-state students, an irresistible factor for institutions struggling to maintain quality, access and affordability. At the University of Washington, in-state students pay $10,575 in annual tuition and fees, while nonresidents pay $28,059.

Foreign freshmen outnumber out-of-state freshmen at the UW for the first time. That ought to become Exhibit A in the case made to the state Legislature that higher education cannot take any more cuts in state funding.

Continue on a path of disinvestment and college admissions become as much a statement about budgets as SAT scores. Gov. Chris Gregoire and lawmakers must grasp how cuts to institutions of higher education have come at a terrible cost to access and degree production for homegrown students.

State support for the six public universities has been cut by nearly half in three years. To their credit, state universities have continued to grow enrollment. But continued growth is contingent on turning around the erosion of state support.

It is unconscionable that Washington's public institutions reside a disgraceful third from the bottom of the nationwide pack in terms of baccalaureate degrees.

Nearly 18 percent of the UW's freshman class is from another country, and more than half of those students are from China — a situation that is as much about China's economic might and growing middle class as anything else.

We all like and need a diverse mix of students. The issue here is not about the students but about state policies making it more difficult for in-state students to earn their college degrees, a value residents feel they paid for with their tax dollars.