ABSTRACT
This chapter recovers that not so distant time when public financing of higher education was fairly uncontroversial as the populace understood higher education as the 'tide that lifted all boats'. It analyzes problematic and cyclical relationships among declining public support, privatization, tuition increases, reliance on alternate funding sources, and growing class inequality in higher education. While politicians nearly universally claim to support the goal of achieving a large middle class, this idea threatens the status quo in ways that make those in power ambivalent at best in actually supporting policies that truly level the playing field. There are public benefits in addition to the extra tax revenues contributed by college graduates. The aforementioned tension between higher education's public and private costs and benefits exists at the heart of the public funding issue. Public funding is key to reversing the trend of socioeconomic class polarization in higher education.
