Going to a public college isn’t as affordable as it used to be - Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, Washington Post

It used to be that students could attend a public university and graduate with little to no debt. Then came the recession, when state governments slashed funding of higher education and families began paying higher tuition bills. Now, even as the economy recovers and taxpayer revenue is pouring back in, states have not restored their funding, and tuition keeps rising, leaving parents and students scrambling to cover costs. No state has cut its higher education funding more since the recession than Arizona, which slashed per-student spending by 48 percent since 2008, from $6,387 per student to $3,305 per student, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank. All but two states in the country — Alaska and North Dakota — are spending less per student than they did before the downturn. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/going-to-a-public-college-isnt-as-affordable-as-it-used-to-be/2015/01/30/813b3eda-9b7b-11e4-96cc-e858eba91ced_story.html