Virginia's governor says legislative limits on out-of-state students at state-supported colleges are not a good idea.
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Gov. Timothy M. Kaine says the answer is for the legislature to better fund state schools, allowing them to expand enrollment and keep in-state tuition lower.
Schools prize the much higher tuitions out-of-state students pay to cover tight budgets.
Sure, it's frustrating if there's no room at a Virginia college or university for your child the A student. But why is that, exactly? Gov. Kaine is exactly right, it's because our state colleges and universities have been chronically underfunded for years (thank you House Republicans and your flat-earth unwillingness to ever raise revenues). So how does cutting down on out-of-state students and their "much higher tuitions" (e.g., $14,000 per year higher at GMU for out-of-state compared to in-state students) help improve that situation? Right, it doesn't. Which is why bills like this one by Clifford Athey and this one by Tim Hugo deserve grades of "F" (for "futile" and "foolish").
