Families are spending more on tuition

Public colleges and universities used to depend mostly on state funding to keep their doors open, but they are increasingly relying on money from families paying ever-rising tuition, writes Danielle Douglas-Gabriel for The Washington Post.

Even though states increased higher education spending in 2014, tuition accounted for nearly half of public college revenue for the third year in a row, according to a new report from the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.

Many advocates say that college has become unaffordable for many families because of lower funding from state governments. There has been a seismic shift in the way public colleges are funded in just the last 26 years. In 1989, tuition made up a quarter of the total education revenue at state universities. By last year, those dollars accounted for 47.1% of the money colleges need to educate students, the report said. While that's down from the all-time high of 47.7% in 2013, it still represents a significant change in funding.
Full report on The Washington Post site