Rising college costs have far exceeded increases in disposable income in Virginia over the past decade, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia reports. The cost for an in-state undergraduate student living on campus accounts for 43.7 percent of per-capita disposable income, SCHEV estimates. That key measure of affordability is up from 32.2 percent in fiscal 2002.
About 58 percent of students who graduated from Virginia’s public and nonprofit private colleges in 2010 were in debt with loan amounts that averaged $23,327, according to the Project on Student Debt of the Institute for College Access and Success.
Nationally, two-thirds of 2010 graduates had loans that averaged $25,250, up from $24,000 for the Class of 2009.
The “What’s Your Number?” petition, a campaign by the student advocacy group Virginia21, has drawn support mostly from colleges students but also parents and new graduates to call attention to the financial burden caused by tuition that has doubled over the last 10 years.
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