CLEMSON -- Double-digit tuition increases at the state's two largest universities tag-teamed state funding drops for several years, but this fall families face rising college costs even as legislators add funding.

Despite restoring millions in state appropriations to Clemson and USC for the 2005-06 school year, trustees from both schools voted to raise tuition by more than 12 percent this fall.

Tuition's "been going up drastically," said James Lampson, 22, of Greenville, a mechanical engineering senior in his fifth year at Clemson who feels the pain.

He blames the state, not the school, and said better funding to education would create a work force that could attract companies with higher paying jobs so the state could get more taxes to better fund its programs.

Clemson junior Amy Fiori, 19, of Liberty, said her father told her any money left in her college fund is hers after graduation.

"He's insane if he thinks there will be anything left," she said.

State Sen. Ralph Anderson, D-Greenville, said he doesn't see schools trying to cut expenditures to keep college affordable for poor and middle class students.

Anderson, who serves on the Senate Education Committee, said the schools need to ensure that every South Carolinian with the academic background has the opportunity to attend a state college. He fears some will be priced out.

University officials say the increases are needed to raise academic quality with smaller classes and other improvements to be among the nation's best, but the price tag has raised eyebrows.

"The bottom line is until we stop spreading our limited resources so thin, parents in South Carolina are going to continue to foot the bill for a wasteful, inefficient and duplicative system of higher ed," said Will Folks, spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford, who had proposed limiting tuition to $250 above HEPI, a national Higher Education Price Index, in a 2005-06 executive budget that was toppled by legislators.

State House speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, said Sanford's proposal probably should have been included.

"We ought to take a look at it and have a conversation with the colleges this year," Harrell said. "We cannot continue double digit increases in tuition and expect South Carolina families to be able to afford it."

The HEPI has increased an average of 4 percent annually since 1998, said Lynn Metcalf, interim director of finance at the state Commission on Higher Education. However, she said it's unfair to compare that with Clemson and USC's 12 percent hikes without also looking at state funding.

The Southern Regional Education Board, in its most recent comparison of its 16 states, ranks South Carolina second in tuition and fees for in-state undergraduates at four-year institutions but 15th of the 16 in state funding per student, she said.

Harrell said tuition increases aren't justified by a lack of state funding this year, but state Rep. B.R. Skelton, R-Six Mile, disagreed.

The tuition increases fill gaps left by past cuts and help South Carolina's major universities "continue to be premier institutions in this country," said Skelton, a professor emeritus at Clemson.

Skelton called tuition increases "an education tax," and said if schools aren't adequately funded by the state, "their only recourse is to increase funding any way they can."

HEPI would work well for some institutions but not others, Skelton said. Because of the diversity of the state's colleges and universities, they need autonomy for their own decisions.

The state used HEPI-plus formulas years ago, but Rick Kelly, USC vice president and chief financial officer, said funding decisions should come out of conversations between university presidents, trustees, legislators and the governor about what they want from the university.

"The quality of education that you want has a price tag on it. If you're content with where you are, then hopefully the price tag is where you need to be, but if you want to improve the quality, improve the state, there is a cost associated with it," Kelly said.

State Rep. Ronnie Townsend, R-Anderson, who chairs the House Education and Public Works committee, said universities should have been more up front in budget talks.

"We would have been prepared to debate a budget on the amount of money they said they would need not to have a tuition increase and worked from that basis to do what we need to ward off these double-digit increases," Townsend said.

Kelly said USC "wants to provide the General Assembly with whatever information it needs."

When the General Assembly decided to fund state lottery scholarships, that was a decision to let students decide where and how to spend state higher education dollars, Kelly said.

"What we do now is, we package the university, the quality of the education, the quality of the service we provide and the experiences students will have here and say this is what we have to offer," Kelly said.

Close to all South Carolinians entering USC and Clemson as freshmen have state lottery-funded scholarships, university officials said. However, statewide, nearly half lose the scholarships, which require a B-average, over the course of their college careers.

Scholarships, state-funded and otherwise, are essential for Peggy Stephens, who toured Clemson this week with the two oldest of her three children.

"College costs are just outrageous," said Stephens, who looked at costs while the high school girls looked at the campus.

Stephens, of Memphis, Tenn., another state that has experienced a financial crisis similar to South Carolina's, said she feels like a "victim of the system" but will do what's necessary for her children's education.

Although Clemson and USC received more state dollars than last year, the added funding is earmarked for specific items, including a mandated raise for state employees and some specific research projects, university officials said.

"Inflation and mandatory cost increases have to be covered and the earmarked funding can't be used to cover those expenses," said Clemson spokeswoman Cathy Sams.

Both schools have specific plans for dollars generated by their tuition increases.

Clemson trustees are expected to act on a proposed fiscal 2005-06 budget Friday at their annual summer retreat in Charleston. That budget contains a recently approved 12.4 percent tuition increase that is expected to generate $16.6 million to split between inflationary costs and academic improvements.

Academic improvements include smaller classes and more course offerings -- which mean hiring new faculty -- as well as better library resources, expanded information technology and a new undergraduate research program, Sams said.

"The lack of teachers causes problems getting into classes. The funds limit the number of teachers and that affects students," said Clemson junior Cornelius Harrington, 20, of Dillon.

He doesn't mind large classes, such as basic chemistry classes that fill the 199 seats in an auditorium-like classroom in the Howard L. Hunter Chemistry Laboratory, if the teacher is good.

Harrington said he's willing to pay a little more tuition to help the university increase faculty and recruit more minority students and faculty.

"If I don't see that come, I may have a problem with it then," Harrington said.

USC's 12.3 percent tuition hike is expected to generate $17.8 million to add faculty, create learning centers in two residence halls, replace antiquated computer systems and increase security both online and on campus, Kelly said.

Several of these goals are multi-year programs that involve millions of dollars a year, such as USC's six-year plan to add 150 faculty members in order to reduce the student-faculty ratio to 15-to-1, Kelly said.

USC budgeted $2 million annually for six years to increase the number and quality of its faculty and added another $1.4 million this year for faculty in sciences where the salaries are higher, Kelly said.

The cost of USC's five-year technology improvement program could soar above $50 million to replace much of its antiquated hardware and software computer systems. Bids will be taken this fall for the program Kelly said will give students better access to what they need and improve communications between campus departments and offices.

The state's three research universities, Clemson, USC and the Medical University of South Carolina, are looking at ways to more efficiently provide services and collaborate, Kelly said.