The Great Cost Shift Continues: State Higher Education Funding After the Recession

The decreasing affordability of higher education is eroding the last relatively secure path into the middle class, as more students take on larger amounts of debt to finance their higher educations, or forego it altogether. With $1.2 trillion in outstanding student loan debt and climbing, student loan debt is now substantial enough to affect our overall economy as indebted graduates find it harder to buy a home or a car. This report updates a previous analysis of state funding trends by examining trends in state funding and tuition since the Great Recession.