MANILA, Philippines?The administration?s decision to reduce the budget of state colleges and universities (SCU) for 2011 is tantamount to abandoning its duty to provide the youth with affordable and quality education, a party-list representative said Friday.

Kabataan Rep. Raymond Palatino criticized President Aquino?s rationale that the reduced budget would push SCUs toward self-sufficiency and financial independence as they have the ability to generate funds for their projects.

Under the proposed 2011 budget, SCUs would get P23.4 billion?1.7 percent lower than their 2010 allocation.

Palatino, in a statement, said self-sufficiency and financial independence achieved through school partnerships with private corporations and tuition increases meant that students would be forced to finance their tertiary education.

Many students could barely afford to go to college, he said, adding that they chose to study in SCUs because the tuition in private colleges and universities continued to skyrocket.

?Allowing SCUs to generate their income and enter into partnerships with the private sector would only mean higher tuition, and consequently, higher drop-out rates and decreased access to tertiary education. This diminishes the public character of SCUs, which are supposed to provide quality and accessible education to those who cannot afford it,? Palatino said.

He said the President could not claim that education was a top priority of his administration when he was abandoning the youth.

He revealed that the SCUs with the worst budget cuts by percentage are the Philippine Normal University (23.59 percent), Aurora State College of Technology (22.21 percent), Cerilles State College (21.95 percent), University of the Philippines (20.11 percent), and the University of Southeastern Philippines (20.03 percent).