RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Virginia state House Republican Majority Leader Kirk Cox says he wants to limit the amount of mandatory fees public universities can collect from students to pay for athletic programs. Cox said Thursday that he plans to introduce legislation limiting fees during the 2015 legislative session. The lawmaker says legislation is needed to make higher education more affordable. He says students who don’t participate in athletics are paying too high a cost to help subsidize the 3 percent of students who play intercollegiate athletics. Cox says his proposal is based on a report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, the General Assembly’s watchdog agency. The report found that costs for auxiliary programs like athletics have been the biggest driver of increased college costs in Virginia.
