[tokenadult]

states are defunding their systems right now because of lower revenues

I observe that in my state, which historically has been a state with quite a high level of funding for higher education. And I observe that nationally there seem to be several states well known for lavish funding of higher education that are in severe economic downturns right now. In light of this, I'm wondering how an advocate of continued high levels of taxpayer funding for higher education makes the case that that is really beneficial for the overall economy of a jurisdiction. Could it be that there is less "investment" with dependable return in such taxpayer funding than people whose incomes derive from higher education claim?

[djcapelis]

There's been quite a few good studies done that show the rate of return on education funding is something absurd like usually 1:10. Unfortunately I don't have any links to them on hand, but if you google around you should find the studies and then we can start quibbling about methodology. :-P

The other point you're making is that states with strong educational investments are hurting worse right now. I think you might find that those states are hurting worse because the difference between the amazing acceleration of everything they felt when the economy was good is just so out of step with the stagnant environment that comes about when the economy is bad that they simply had more to lose.

If you're referring to California, then that's a situation that has a lot of factors, many to do with the fact that the California Constitution is simply an document which is downright insane and progressively continuing to get more insane as voters keep lobbing stuff into it.