As economy rebounds, state funding for higher education isn’t bouncing back - Luba Ostashevsky, Hechinger Report

By 2015, Pennsylvania had cut funding to its public universities by $3,758 per full-time student, giving its students only about two-thirds the national average of what states contribute to higher ed. Tuition at its public universities had gone up nearly $2,000 since the start of the recession. Seventy percent of students in Pennsylvania now graduate with debt that averages $33,264, higher than the national average of $29,000, the Institute for College Access and Success reports. Some observers see signs of hope. State investment in public universities and colleges nationally has at least surpassed the level it was at during the low point of 2012, SHEEO says. Still, said Iris Palmer, who watches higher education as a senior policy analyst at the think tank New America, given “the insane disinvestment” between 2008 and 2014, “you wonder what they’ll do when another recession hits.” http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/economy-rebounds-state-funding-higher-education-isnt-bouncing-back/