A national nonprofit organization released a "report card" yesterday on each state's educational system, giving the Commonwealth of Virginia average marks in some categories but a near-failing grade in affordability of higher education.
The California-based National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education issued a grade for each state in six categories: preparation of students for college, participation in higher education, affordability of higher education, completion of higher education or equivalent programs, benefits of the state from having an educated population and quality of learning.
Virginia received a "B+" in preparation, a "B-" in participation, a "D-" in affordability, a "B" in completion, an "A-" in benefits and an "Incomplete" in learning due to lack of comparable state-by-state data.
Virginia's poor affordability rating brings up questions about the availability and necessity of financial aid to offset the high prices of college tuition.
"In the last decade, we've been moving to a place where parents and students are footing more of the bill," compared to need-based financial aid, said David Breneman, Dean of the Curry School of Education and an adviser on the report. "I think an awful lot of lower-income kids are going to have a tough time."
Virginia isn't the only state suffering from high tuition, as most states received an affordability grade of "D" or below.
The Commonwealth's investment in need-based financial aid is low compared to top-performing states such as California, which received a "B" for affordability. Virginia's investment in need-based financial aid is only 35 percent of the federal government's contribution, compared to California's investment of 48 percent.
According to the University Web site, around 45 percent of the student body receives some kind of financial aid during any given school year. Of the millions of dollars that go into financial aid programs, around 36 percent comes from the University.
The issue of state financial support has been highly publicized at the University and other public schools.
"We will continue to provide sufficient state support to colleges and universities so they don't have to raise their tuition as much as they have in the past, and we will strive to make adequate financial aid available so they don't have to go into debt to achieve higher education," said Peter A. Blake, Virginia deputy secretary of education for higher education and the state library.
Despite the weaknesses in state education highlighted by the report, Jennifer Delaney, a policy analyst at the Center, said part of the report's purpose is to affect educational policy changes.
"The entire hope and purpose of putting out these reports is to stimulate policy discussions, thinking in particular how well the state is serving its citizens about higher education opportunities," Delaney said.
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