Senator Walter F. Mondale (D-Minn.) said yesterday that middle-income families' increasing inability to pay for higher education and the federal government's low subsidies to schools are endangering the quality of post-secondary education.

Mondale spoke at a symposium on higher education in Longfellow Hall.

"The grubby, grimy factor of the financing and cost of post-secondary education has outstripped the cost of living for many years, and this is causing great bitterness among many middle-income families who can no longer afford higher education," Mondale said.

He said he and his fellow senators have received numerous angry letters from constituents who are protesting the costs of higher education because they cannot afford it and yet do not qualify for federal aid.

If costs continue to rise they will squeeze the middle-class out of existence, he added.

He said that while other federal departments' budgets did not suffer significantly during the recession, education underwent major budget cuts.

"The Defense Department, Commerce Department and the banks did not pick up the recession costs--it was the school children," and educational institutions that paid, Mondale said.

Mondale is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare and has worked for many Senate Committees concerned with education.