According to a report by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, in the last 25 years the cost of a college education has gone up at triple the rate of family income. Increasingly, middle-class parents are going into debt to put their children through college, while lower-income students are having to give up the dream of a university education. In addition, on average, students from poorer families actually get smaller grants than those from wealthier families. Among families with incomes in the lowest 20 percent, the net cost of a year at a public university was 55 percent of median income, up from 39 percent in 1999-2000. The report ranked Massachusetts as the state that provides the greatest opportunities for higher education, and Nevada and Alaska as the states with the worst records.