We Can't Afford No Education?

My dear friend David Moltz over at Inside Higher Ed had a piece a few days ago about the influx of first-generation college students at small liberal-arts schools. As hard as it may be for some of my friends in C'ville to believe, there is still a substantive portion of the US that doesn't even get a shot at a four-year education. 

David says Kentucky ranks 47th in terms of people with bachelor's degrees or higher. In case you're interested, West Virginia is dead last with 16.5 percent of the population holding post-secondary degrees. Virginia is 7th but I wonder what the ranking would be if you just included the Fightin' Ninth. According to the Census Bureau, the nationwide average is 27 percent.