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A new national report card from a higher education thinktank is sounding some ominous tones for the future of American higher education, and has given North Carolina an "F" for college affordability.

That failing grade may seem odd to folks in North Carolina, where the public university system has long fought to keep tuition low and an affordable college education is actually guaranteed by the state's constitution.

But in failing on affordability, North Carolina is far from lonely. The report card from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education issued an "F" to every state except California, which ruined the perfect sweep with a "C-." 

The report says higher education in North Carolina has gotten less affordable over time. Even as the state devotes more money to need-based financial aid, it isn't enough to keep up with the rising expenses faced by working families, the report states.

Hannah Gage, who chairs the UNC system's Board of Governors, told me this morning that while North Carolina's public universities are still a good deal when compared to counterparts in most states, greater attention should perhaps be paid to the financial situations facing the families trying to send their children to college now.

"If middle-class income levels have flat-lined over the last several years, it may have changed their ability to pay," she said.

Here's a link to a site that breaks the report down state by state.

And attached to this blog, you'll find the pdf to the in-depth North Carolina report.

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