MUCH OF THE CLASS OF '87 can expect a large promissary note along with their diplomas next spring. That's the message of a recent Congressional study which disclosed that federal loans to college students have nearly tripled in the last decade while grants and scholarship aid have fallen 62 percent. During the 1975-'76 academic year roughly 80 percent of student aid came as non-repayable grants. This year grants account for less than half of student financial aid. While the cost of a college education has grown steadily, the Reagan Administration has slashed grant programs. As a result college students are facing an increasing debt burden, currently $9.8 billion, that threatens not only the availability of a college education, but also the very point of one.

At issue is not only who can afford a college education, but also what college graduates will, or can, choose to do with their educations. Who will choose a low-paying public interest job when faced with a $20,000 debt? And how do we expect to attract more qualified people to teaching careers when large debts make private sector jobs that much more attractive? Forcing students to mortgage their futures means mortgaging the future of the country.

The roots of this crisis are hardly complex. The Reagan Administration has tried relentlessly to cut funds and programs for education and has succeeded in drastically reducing grant programs for college students. So we should hardly be surprised that the new budget proposals would slash crucial student aid programs and would actually increase college students' dependence on loans. The budget would eliminate the $592.5 million federal work-study program and would tighten eligibility for Pell grants, forcing 1 million students--a third of the program--off the rolls.

The Administration hopes to make these cuts palatable by seeming to liberalize the federal Guaranteed Student Loan (GSL) program, but the package of proposed changes in GSLs would only exacerbate the problem of student indebtedness. Reagan's budget would increase the loan ceiling to $50,000 and to adjust repayment of loans to income levels. However, students would also have to borrow money at market rates and to begin paying interest as soon as they take out loans, instead of being forgiven interest until graduation. The bottom line is that students will graduate much further in debt. Even adjusting repayment to income levels--while a positive step--only delays the debt burden.

For a nation facing a widely proclaimed crisis in education, Reagan's destruction of federal education programs could spell the beginning of the end. Throughout this Administration Congress has resisted cuts in education. Now it's time to turn the tables. The Reagan Administration has precipitated a crisis in higher education. The new Democratic majority in both the House and the Senate can respond by not only protecting the GSL and work-study programs, but also increasing federal grant programs to help mitigate the rising cost of a college education.

Seven years ago Ronald Reagan ran for President calling for a "New Beginning" for the country. But for the current generation of college students, Reagan's wholesale assault on student aid programs means a beginning shrouded in red ink.