The federal government's Medicaid mandate is destroying state education budgets-- Medicaid is literally crowding out state public university education spending.
I'm talking about out-of-state tuition though, which from my understanding was not subsidized by the state government at all. The funny thing is, the university I went to was still cheaper and better than my in-state alternatives.
It's all the same pie, from the point-of-view of state government. They need to make their budget balance, and the school is a target-rich environment for them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/medicaid...