I am a product of Virginia’s first-class public colleges. My mother was the first in eleven generations of Virginians in her family to attend college – Longwood University – and also achieved a master’s degree at the University of Virginia. My father attended the University of Virginia School of Law before it was effectively privatized. 
Historically, the state covered 2/3rds of each student’s tuition and the student was responsible for 1/3rd. After years of cutting taxes and funding cuts, that ratio has now flipped. I attended James Madison University during the recession in the early 1990’s and the University of Virginia School of Law school shortly afterwards. While at JMU, the state imposed huge budget cuts resulting in a three-year hiring freeze, salary freeze, fewer programs and skyrocketing tuition – even mid-year tuition increases. While in law school, Virginia took all state money out of my law school. Since I left UVA Law, tuition has skyrocketed from $8,500 per year to $71,000 for in-state students.
Each time revenues decline, the state legislature treats our colleges like a cash machine by asking universities to do more with less and asking middle-class families who depend on state-supported higher education to pay more in the middle of recessions and stock market crashes. In response to these cuts, our colleges have been forced to rely more on out-of-state students who pay higher tuition. Some have proposed that we cap out-of-state student enrollment instead of properly funding our responsibilities. I reject this as a short-term gimmick that does not resolve the fundamental long-term problem – funding.
The problem is our state legislature, the General Assembly, not the colleges. The stress on our colleges results from a failure to plan and the legislature refusing to meet its obligations, not from college administrators.
Our community college system is also a critical component of higher education and creating jobs. Community colleges provide a pipeline to our residential colleges. They also provide education for entry level semi-professional jobs in health care, law and business. Community college should be free. Fortunately, in 2021, we passed the G3 program which provides free community college for in-demand career paths.
Virginia must invest more in its first-class colleges, expand existing schools and study whether new colleges are warranted by demand and limited capacity. I will fight for our state’s colleges and universities because our society is strengthened and enriched by educated people. Our children deserve the same opportunities that my parents and I enjoyed.
If elected, I will:
- Work to expand opportunities for Northern Virginians in the state’s colleges and universities.
- Fight to use Virginia’s $1 billion surplus in the VA529 Program to permanently endow scholarships for Virginia students who require financial aid.
- Restore funding to our higher education system to the state covering 2/3rds the cost of an in-state student’s tuition.
- Fight funding cuts to our higher education system.
- Fight to end the stem cell research ban in Virginia’s universities.
- Bolster our strong community college system. Community colleges are a critical, affordable avenue to achievement for students of all ages and we should make them a priority.
- Pay our teachers reasonable wages and benefits to fight attrition.
- Work to study the long-term supply and demand for college slots in Virginia.
- Fight unscrupulous student loan companies and ensure fair lending practices for students who cannot afford tuition in the current economic environment.