The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education’s annual National Report Card on Higher Education came out this week, and EVERY SINGLE STATE in the US earned a resounding “F” when it came to affordability (i.e., how hard it is to pay for college, taking into account tuition, financial aid and family income). Every state, that is, except California, which earned a shining C- due to its unusually low-cost community colleges. Congratulations, you’re slightly below par!

Particularly telling is the report’s chart (left) of college tuition growth as compared to other major expenses since 1982-84. Not only has it increased by more than four times the rate of the Consumer Price Index during that time, but its pace is more than that of food, housing and transportation COMBINED. Only health care comes relatively close to the meteoric rise in college costs, and even that is just a bit more than half the rate of tuition.

Just eight years ago, 46 states passed the affordability test, meaning that only — no wait, don’t tell me, 7 5 4 states flunked. See what education can do for you?

With the stock market flatlining, unemployment soaring and corporations struggling to stay afloat, online education is one of the few industries that seem to be thriving, for a number of reasons:

• The popularity of online classes has already been expanding steadily since the turn of the century, as more schools begin to offer classes and more students gain access to the Internet. The number of students taking at least one college course online has shot up by more than 145% since 2002, with average growth of over 20% a year.
• Online classes generate revenue for cash-strapped schools and generate extra income for cash-strapped teachers without the cost associated with maintaining a real-world classroom setting.
• Workers who’ve been laid off can use their new-found free time to explore other job options by earning degrees in other fields, or they can simply boost their resumes so that they can get a better position in the same industry.
• Those who are still working but feel anxious about their security can boost their skill set by taking classes related to their field.
• Companies looking to cut costs may resort to e-learning as a cheaper alternative to in-person training sessions that incur expenses for location and travel.
• Despite a more stringent lending environment, the federal government has taken steps to make it easier to acquire student loans by helping to secure the loans in the secondary market for wary investors.

As more and more students enroll in online classes, more and more schools will offer them, improving the stature of online degrees and spurring even more students to enroll. This is how humans will evolve into giant pulsating brains.

Spurred by a Chronicle of Higher Education survey that revealed last week that public university presidents earn a median salary of $427,400 per year, several college presidents have decided to forgo raises — or even take pay cuts — in this time of economic hardship. With colleges closing across the country and tuition rising, news that eight university presidents earn over $1 million a year caused the annual survey to make a bigger splash than normal this year. In response, the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania (over $1 million salary), the University of Washington ($900,000 plus $340,000 for serving on corporate boards), Washington University in St. Louis ($780,000 plus $360,000 from corporate boards) and Washington State University (a mere $600,000) voluntarily took pay cuts or gave donations as large as $100,000. (Granted, they’ve probably been receiving raises that size annually for the past decade.) If you’d like to sponsor a starving college president in his or her time of need, feel free to contact the university. It’s tax deductible!

The clever readers at Lifehacker have contributed their best tips for finding cheap text books online. Their top recommendations:

• BigWords.com - A popular price comparison engine.
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• Chegg.com - A book rental service.
• Half.com - A discount bookseller.

For more details and advice on finding cheap text books see the full summary on Lifehacker.