"The state's financial crisis means that thousands of Rhode Island students attending public or private colleges will receive smaller state scholarships for the next academic year, even as the cost of higher education continues to climb and families are scrambling to pay tuition bill," the Providence Journal reports. "Eligible students will receive an average of about $900 evenly divided between fall and spring semesters -- a drop from a couple of years ago, when most students received about $1,200 a year. Higher Education Commissioner Jack R. Warner called the scholarship decrease regrettable, acknowledging that students and their families will have to shoulder more of the burden of paying for college."