By Jessica Sabbath
| Virginia Business
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Full Article
Becoming the most-educated state is an ambitious proposal, especially as college tuition continues to rise and changing demographics create challenges. The Virginia Plan for Higher Education provides a framework on how the Commonwealth can become "the best-educated state" by 2030. It includes targets such as raising degree completion to a total of 1.5 million awards, increasing research expenditures by 30 percent and improving the affordability of higher education.
Currently Virginia ranks sixth highest among the states for percentage of working-age adults with a degree or credential. About 51 percent of Virginia's working-age adults currently meet that standard, according to the Lumina Foundation, an Indianapolis-based foundation whose goal is to make post-secondary education more available.