Source: SCHEV. Click to enlarge image.
The plundering of the middle class continues unabated. The State Council for Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV) has tallied the numbers and found that in-state undergraduates at Virginia’s public colleges and universities will see a 5.1% average increase in tuition and fees this fall. That exceeds last year’s 4.5% rise, despite an additional $25 million in state aid in the current fiscal year.
The increases make college more unaffordable than ever. As seen in the chart above, total charges, including room and board, for students at four-year colleges now absorb 46% of per capita disposable income — up from 32.2% in 2001-2002.
With every passing year, colleges and universities become riper for wholesale disruption by upstart institutions with lower-cost business models. The modern-day university serves multiple constituencies, the least powerful of which under the current mode of governance are the students. At some point, students will revolt — not by staging 1960s-style sit-ins but by refusing to show up at all.
— JAB
