This story idea was submitted as a part of The State News' reader generated issue. 

In a rather tumultuous period of American politics, exacerbated by the upcoming presidential primaries, one issue captures the attention of all students alike — the cost of tuition.

In the most recent higher education budget plan created by the Michigan House Fiscal Agency, an interesting duality stands out as the cost of tuition seems to be rising with an apparent fall in the state's funding to its public universities.

State appropriations to public universities currently make up about 12 percent of the state’s general fund. 

The budget also shows funding for public universities in the state of Michigan has decreased by $217 million throughout the course of the past decade.

Coincidentally, the sinking curve of state funding has crisscrossed the curve for rising tuition and fees allocated to each student, which is rising exponentially.

Dean of the College of Education Don Hellersaid “research has shown that there is a strong relationship between decreases in state funding and increases in tuition fees in public universities.”

Heller has drawn attention to the $1 billion surplus the state found itself with to utilize through the fiscal year of 2015.

While debate raged on what to do with the excess funds, Heller proposed the state repurpose the surplus to aid the steadily decreasing funding of the K-12 education and higher education alike.

“I believe the governor, and the leadership of the legislature, are missing out on an opportunity to reverse the decade-long erosion in funding for both K-12 and higher education in the state,” he said in a blog post.

Subsequently, Dr. Heller said he feels this will also lead to a decrease in tuition and fees as well as benefits for higher education.

“More money for higher education would allow the state’s public universities to moderate their tuition increases, and pump more funds into need-based grants, to ensure a college education is affordable for students from low and moderate-income families,” he said.

Press Secretary to the Governor David Murray agrees with that notion.

“Gov. Snyder has asked for caps on tuition increases to help keep the cost of attending college more affordable for more families,” he said.