RICHMOND, Va. — College students in Virginia who fall behind on tuition payments can have a hard time digging out thanks to a state law that pushes unpaid bills into the hands of private collection agencies.
The Washington Post reported Sunday that a little-known Virginia law requires public colleges to turn over unpaid accounts of less than $3,000 to private debt collectors if they are 60 days past due.
The debt collectors can add a 30 percent fee to the unpaid account. George Mason University in Fairfax, the state’s largest university, estimated about 1 percent of student accounts are sent to collections.
Del. Marcus Simon, a Democrat from Falls Church, said in a Facebook post earlier this week that he will seek a legislative fix to ease the burden on students who fall behind.
