Found this, on the Virginia community colleges website:
For the 2014-15 academic year, in-state tuition and mandatory fees for our colleges will be approximately $4080 for two semesters of full-time study (15 credit hours per semester), or about 37 percent of the average in-state tuition and fees at Virginia’s public universities (projected at $11,025).

Not that the tuition at the universities is that much cheaper, but still a steal compared to others I read about. It is not a huge difference, so I imagine very few well-qualified kids would go to community college first simply to save money, but rather hope for generous financial aid from a four year college more suited to their needs.