A vow to ease tuition's burden

Republican Bob McDonnell and Democrat Creigh Deeds will argue over many topics this year, but it's good to know they both recognize that state support for public colleges isn't a partisan issue.

It's also good to know that, no matter who wins in November, the next governor will have a group of influential people watching to make sure he follows through on his commitments to colleges and universities.

The Virginia Business Higher Education Council laid out its own agenda last month with a 10-year plan to increase the proportion of working-age Virginians with college degrees from 42 percent to 50 percent.

The "Grow by Degrees" initiative will require community and four-year colleges to award an additional 70,000 degrees over the coming decade.

It will require new resources for high-demand programs including science, technology, engineering, mathematics, health care and education.

It will require more financial aid for low- and middle-income students. In short, it will require a greater and more dependable flow of state dollars to Virginia's colleges and universities.

State funding has been neither great nor dependable in recent years. State support per in-state student has dropped from $10,675 to $6,586 since 2000. Community colleges have experienced a cut from $4,930 to $3,477 per student over the same period.

Those reductions have triggered tuition hikes that have overwhelmed family budgets and weighed down graduates with enormous debt.

Council members - including local business notables like Betsy Atkinson, Joshua Darden Jr., Edward Hamm, Frank Batten Sr. and John Wynne - want a dedicated source of state funding for higher education, and they want to create a tuition rainy day fund to smooth out debilitating fluctuations in college expenses.

Although their names carry a great deal of respect, they know they can't succeed without help.

That's why they're building a coalition of individuals and organizations to help them make their case to state leaders. Anyone can join by visiting the group's Web site at www.growbydegrees.org.

McDonnell and Deeds have embraced portions of the Grow by Degrees plan, but not its entirety. Neither has provided a detailed explanation on how he would pay for the reforms.

But the conversation about Virginia's need to expand college enrollment has begun, and there are encouraging signs that it will continue well past Election Day.