Higher Education

Report finds Oklahoma colleges raised tuition despite increased state funding

June 29, 2026

Ray Carter

Earlier this month, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education voted to allow numerous state institutions to hike tuition rates. The head of Oklahoma State University indicated more tuition hikes will occur if already-rising state appropriations are not increased at an even-faster rate.

But a new report by Andrew Gillen, a research fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, shows that colleges nationwide, including in Oklahoma, have not been forced to raise tuition because of insufficient state appropriations.

Instead, college tuition has increased significantly alongside ever-rising state appropriations over the last four-plus decades.

In “Trends in Higher Education: State Funding and Tuition Revenue at Public Colleges from 1980 to 2025,” Gillen reviewed state funding to colleges and universities and tuition rates since 1980.

Gillen found that during that period, after adjusting for inflation, state funding for colleges nationwide increased by $63 per student per year, while tuition revenue increased by $157 per year, and total educational revenue increased by $220 per student per year.

In 1980, the cost of tuition nationwide was $2,029 in 2025 dollars, compared to $7,459 in 2025.

Gillen found that total revenue, including state appropriations along with tuition and fees, reached “a new high of over $19,000 per student in 2025, twice the amount in 1980” after adjusting for inflation.

“There are two main implications of these trends,” Gillen wrote. “They prove that state disinvestment is a myth—states have been persistently increasing funding for higher education, not cutting it. They also disprove the common argument that tuition has been rising over the past several decades to offset cuts in state funding.”

While state funding tends to decline during and immediately after recessions, Gillen found these temporary decreases are more than compensated for by subsequent increases during non-recession years.

In Oklahoma, Gillen found tuition increased by $7,518 per student from 1980 to 2025, after adjusting for inflation, even though state funding also increased by $1,435 per student during that time.

“One reason the myth of state disinvestment matters is that it is used to argue that state disinvestment leads to higher tuition,” Gillen wrote. “According to this argument, since it costs a certain amount to provide an education, colleges need to raise tuition to fill in the gap if state funding declines.

“The main problem with this argument is that states have been increasing funding over time, not cutting it,” Gillen continued. “This means that if tuition were adjusted to offset changes in state funding, then tuition should have been falling, not rising.”

For example, he noted that, nationwide, inflation-adjusted state funding per student rose from $7,677 in 1980 to $12,081 in 2025, an increase of $4,404.

“If changes in tuition are driven by changes in state funding, then tuition should have declined by $4,404, but it rose by $5,430 (from $2,029 to $7,459), a difference of $9,834,” Gillen noted (emphasis in original).

In June, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education approved tuition-and-fee increases at 16 Oklahoma universities.

The largest increase occurred at Oklahoma State University, which raised in-state tuition by 4.7 percent. OSU President Jim Hess told regents the university would likely seek additional tuition increases in the future unless the Legislature provided even more money to higher education. Those comments came after the Legislature increased state appropriations to colleges this year, providing $1.1 billion in funding.

The University of Oklahoma hiked tuition by 3 percent, marking the fifth year in a row the college has increased costs despite rising state appropriations.