Bret Devereaux

I cite the source for my figures in the thread. I'm open to the idea that this looks different depending on how you cut the data. But if the situation we're in is "we have recession, funding almost-but-doesn't-quite recover, before collapsing again" I'm not sure that's better?

But the same time, that rush of student grant funding is split itself over more students - my impression is that enrollments in 2010-2011 were higher than '06-'08. So to get that grant money you have to stretch it over more students, which further strains instructional?

Sure, but what I mean is you're pointing to grant money replacing state money at an absolute funding level. But if enrollments had to be larger for that to happen, then that static pool of inflation adjusted money has to support more costs (read: students)?