Ohioans can expect to spend between 30 and more than 50 percent of their family income to pay for college for just one student, a rate higher than neighboring states even after financial aid.
That's according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, a group that has been surveying college effectiveness since 2000.
Pat Callahan, the Center's president, says Ohio is losing ground in being able to compete globally in higher education.
Callan: "We're losing our international leadership, we have made only modest progress, and in affordability, the whole country has gone south."
According to the survey, Ohio's education costs are high despite a public university tuition freeze because the state contributes far less than others to need-based student grants. That means Ohio undergraduates borrowed about 46-hundred dollars on average last year.
In the survey, lack of affordability often outweighed advantages like academic ability and preparedness.
Callen: Families that have a history of sending their kids to college will do what it takes to send them there, if that means taking on a huge amount of debt, they will do that. Where affordability does trump preparation I think is in the very low income. Except the superstars, when someone comes and finds them."
Ohio has improved in two areas. The state earned a B minus in preparing students to attend college. Sixty two percent of Ohio high schoolers are enrolled in upper level math courses -- defined as at least Algebra two before they finish high school. And 90 percent earn a diploma or GED before age 24. Also the likelihood that an Ohio student will enter college by age 19 has jumped nearly 10 points since the 1990s - but even in that category the state still only earns a C-minus.
Kymberli Hagelberg, 90.3