Myth and Reality in the Crisis in College Affordability - Robert Hiltonsmith, Demos

In the past, state funding for education often rose and fell along with the economy: since higher education funding is viewed as “discretionary” spending, it is often a target for cuts when states are forced to close recessionary holes in their budgets. However, in the past decade, state funding for higher education has diverged from that trend. Six years after the great recession, state higher education funding per student remains 27 percent below its pre-recession level.32 Unfortunately, declining state support for higher education means that many students today have no choice but to take on significant debt to finance their educations, the negative effects of which are increasingly evident in young people’s lives.33 http://www.demos.org/publication/pulling-higher-ed-ladder-myth-and-reality-crisis-college-affordability