A radio report this morning indicated that for the first time, more than half of college students are living at home. The high cost of college is causing a spike in enrollments at local two and four year schools, where the students can commute and avoid the high cost of room and board. In a recent conversation with folks at the University of Memphis, they indicated a 20% jump in enrollment for online classes.
The increase in the cost of commuting--to school, not just to work--will continue to change the way people acquire a college degree. We will see many more people supplement traditional classroom instruction with online attendance, and others will forgo the traditional four year program entirely.
Halifax County, Virginia public schools have an innovative program that allows high school students to graduate twelfth grade with two full years of college credit, and Halifax students are leaving their senior year in high school and enrolling at prestigious schools like William and Mary, UVa, and Virginia Tech--as Juniors! This gets more people into the workforce more quickly, and cuts the cost of a four year education in half. The Halifax K12 school system may well be the best school system in the country--in addition to this innovative college credit program, it has state of the art programs to teach video production, and is the only school in the country with Academy programs from elementary school all the way through 12th grade.