State spending for higher education increased an average of 5.3 percent in the 2005-06 fiscal year, according to a report by the Center for the Study of Educational Policy at Illinois State University. James C. Palmer, a higher education professor at Illinois State, says colleges and universities are moving out of the “trough” they inhabited in fiscal year 2003-04, when general fund appropriations increased by just 2.1 percent. Twenty-seven states increased higher education budgets by 5 percent or more this year. The University of Georgia’s allotment rose 10.8 percent, the report says.
