<p>I guess I was too broad in my statement on VA schools. I did think that was an across the board figure, but it applies primarily to W&M where I went to school (36% OOS). It does look like the rest are around 30%.</p>
<p>Funding models surely must vary by state, but my understanding in VA is that the law is written such that the higher the OOS %, the lower the funding from the state, but that applies to in state students in addition to OOS. In other words, as I understand it, the commonwealth (forgive me - forgot I was talking about stodgy old VA - they hate being called a “state” 
) has formulas in place whereby per pupil funding of in state students goes up if a state, er, commonwealth school has a lower OOS percentage. If true, and I heard this for years when I lived there, that means the higher OOS percentages in VA drive up the costs for in state students. Surely the state legislature must like this, and, I guess it’s a catch 22 as, if Tech, UVA, W&M, JMU, etc lowered their OOS %s, the state may not have the budget to provide further per student subsidies, so they’d cut the funding anyway, and in state tuition would be the same as it is now. Raising OOS caps seems to me to be an addictive, slippery slope.</p>
<p>All I can observe is that the state of NC provides excellent educational opportunities to its tax paying residents at a substantially lower cost than VA (Tuition at UNC, State, Appalachian, UNCW, etc runs about 6K per year; W&M tuition is about 12K, UVA and Tech are about 10K - all figures are for in state) and provides those opportunities in greater proportion to its own residents.</p>