Trends in Higher Education: State Funding and Tuition Revenue at Public Colleges from 1980 to 2023

Public colleges have two main sources of income to fund their educational activities--direct state funding (often called appropriations) and tuition revenue. This study documents the history of these revenue sources over the past four decades. The goals are to (1) document the history of state funding, tuition revenue, and total educational revenue, (2) identify any long-term trends, (3) correct any misperceptions about these trends, and (4) explore the implications of these trends. To accomplish these goals, this analysis uses data from the State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) report published annually by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.1 The SHEF report and this study focus on educational revenue, which excludes revenue for research, agricultural, and medical operations to highlight the revenue available for the educational activities of colleges. For simplicity, this study refers to SHEF's education appropriations as state funding (though note that this includes local funding, which tends to be minor relative to funding from the state), and it refers to the net tuition and fee revenue as tuition revenue.2 Unless otherwise noted, the figures in this study are adjusted for inflation using the personal consumption expenditures price index.