I&#x27;ve begun to regard statements of &quot;decrease funding&quot; by media reports with skepticism. Usually &quot;cuts in spending&quot; means &quot;reductions in the projected growth rate of spending&quot;. I believe that absolute state funding of public universities is on the decline though in the last few years, but its important to note the levels in a historic context. If you increase spending substantially, and then proceed to decrease it in the following years, that&#x27;s not the same as a steady erosion of funding over decades.<p>It appears as though there was a huge spike in funding around the time of the financial crisis, and now it has been dropping over the last few years back to levels closer to that of the 1990s [0]. Not sure why most articles point to the high water mark of the last 5-10 years as the benchmark for cuts.<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.randalolson.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;05&#x2F;20&#x2F;skyrocketing-student-enrollment-is-partly-to-blame-for-rising-college-costs&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.randalolson.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;05&#x2F;20&#x2F;skyrocketing-student-e...</a>