The financial crisis for institutions of higher education is deepening. Higher tuition rates may be one of the answers, but this would exclude even more young people from attending college because of inability to pay, at a time when greater equality of opportunity in higher education has become an important goal. Federal support has helped but not alleviated the serious situation. The establishment of a Higher Education Loan Pool (HELP) could help both institutions and students. The Pool should be administered by a nonprofit, government-chartered corporation that would be authorized to make three types of loans: (1) contingent repayment loans to students up to $15,000, which the student would repay with a flat-rate personal income tax for 60 years after graduation, with the rate related to the original amount borrowed; (2) fixed repayment loans to students which would be comparable to present National Defense Education Act loans, but more liberal; and (3) college facilities loans which would allow colleges to borrow the full cost of building facilities with repayment over 50 years. Since ability to pay seems to be a far more effective barrier to a college education than ability to learn, the contingent loans will especially help the poor and female students, who previously may have declined to borrow because of the heavy indebtedness incurred right after college, regardless of income earned. (AF)