What state do you live in? I am from CO and I went back through the state budgets, population demographics, etc. and cross referenced them with some of the schools expenditure data. In CO, the percentage of the state budget that is spent on higher education has remained pretty much flat since I was in college (it was 14.5% of the state's budget in 2015, it was 14.2% in 1995), the state tax percentage is pretty much the same, so the per capita contributions are pretty much the same adjusted for inflation as what they were in 1995 (there were a couple of tax hikes since then in the form of marijuana taxes that have actually caused some of the facility expenditures to be shifted in their favor). As far as enrollments are concerned, enrollment for all public institutions was 203,943 in 2001 (population 4,444,513, or 4.59% of the population) vs 261,138 in 2017 (population 5,609,445 or 4.66% of the population), or essentially the same on a per capita basis. So on the revenue side, things are pretty much the same on a per student basis when adjusted for inflation. On the expenditure side, there was not great data available. At CU, they have increased instructor expenses by 24% over roughly that period (would be interesting to see if they increased faculty or just increased faculty pay) and TRIPLED scholarship spending. This last factor explains a lot about why college costs have soared. They are charging people more so that they can give money away to others (it's essentially another Robin Hood tax). So students are graduating with more debt that was essentially taken from them and given to their peers.