Virginia public colleges to freeze tuition next year

Every public college in Virginia is freezing tuition for the next school year for the first time in almost 20 years.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Longwood University recently became the last school to approve a tuition freeze.

Lawmakers included $57.5 million in this year's state budget for colleges that agreed to freeze their tuition to share. Every school took them up on the offer. The funds were targeted for in-state tuition but six schools are also freezing out-of-state tuition. They are Christopher Newport University, George Mason University, Norfolk State University, Virginia Military Institute, Virginia Commonwealth University and Radford University.

A stronger-than-expected state economy helped give lawmakers hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funds to spend this year.

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Information from: Richmond Times-Dispatch, http://www.richmond.com