The report highlights problems that have long plagued colleges but the pandemic brought into focus, including anemic state higher ed funding and whether public financial aid programs efficiently target students who most need them.
Too often, schools that receive large amounts of state money serve tiny portions of low-income students, the report states.
Its authors call out William & Mary, which is the fifth-highest funded four-year public school in Virginia but enrolls the smallest share of low-income students in the state. William & Mary received nearly $8,500 in state money per full-time equivalent student as of 2019, but fewer than 12% of its students were federal Pell Grant recipients, based on a three-year average.
