Cuts in state funding to Indiana public universities began in 2009, when $150 million was cut from the state's higher education budget, with the aim of stabilizing the state's dire financial situation. Since then, state funding to higher education has been cut over 6% overall. The decreased funding has forced some public universities to raise tuition and fees as much as 5.5% this year, and to slash their buildings repair and rehabilitation budgets.

For this episode of Noon Edition, we spoke with with Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education Teresa Lubbers, IU Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Neil Theobald, and Tim Sands, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at Purdue, to sort out the issue of higher education funding and take a look at what the next years have in store for Indiana students.