The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE - Students are borrowing more than ever to pay college expenses, despite increases in state and federal aid, state and school records show.

In the 2002-03 school year, students borrowed an extra $1,332 compared to four years earlier, the records said.

The increase matches a nationwide trend. The average debt load carried by a graduate of a four-year public college was $10,342 in 1995-96. Four years later, the average increased to $15,375, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Sarah Boyd of Pikeville, who will be a University of Louisville senior this fall, said she has $5,500 in loans, plus scholarships and a federal grant for low-income students. But Boyd said she worries that she'll have to borrow more to pursue a master's degree.

Even with low interest rates on the federal loans - they sank to 3.37 percent in July - Boyd said the loans would be hard to pay back because of low pay in the education field.

"The bottom line is it costs a lot more than it ever has to go to school," said Joe McCormick, executive director of the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority, a state agency that works to make federally guaranteed loans available to students.

Brenda Anderson, a retired teacher from Paris, said she was glad her son, Jonathan, took out about $10,000 in loans to help pay his way through Kentucky Christian College in Grayson. He graduated in May with a degree in business administration.

"I encouraged him to take the loans because I thought it would help him establish credit," Anderson said, and give him responsibility after college.