Sure. But what I'm wondering is what subsidies you're referring to. Are you talking about grants and loans that students get, or maybe federal grant money for research?
These organizations literally directly receive money from the government. Students grants are a factor too, but they are owned and financed in large part by the State. That's called a subsidy. They are losing money, that the taxpayer shoulders.
Ok. So I looked at the FY19 budget for one of the universities I attended and for the overall budget of $7.3 billion it's broken out like this (numbers are rounded). [1]
Tuition and fees -> $1.8 bb
Government appropriations (it looks like this is what you're referring to as direct subsidies?) -> $ 470 mm
Grants and contracts -> $862 mm
Sales & Services University -> $543 mm
Sales & Services Health System -> $3.3 bb
Sales & Services OSU Physicians -> $480 mm
Gifts and Endowment -> $380 mm
Negligible other items -> $100 mm or something.
So what subsidies are you referring to? Happy to look at a different university if you want to provide an example.
Unfortunately I can't reply, but I'm not sure why you're only considering government appropriations with respect to tuition instead of the entire budget. Seems a bit selective to me.
Yup, government appropriations is about 38% of tuition. Part of tuition is also paid for by the government via various programs.
So if you want to look at total cost starting from the average amount a student pays as tuition you have to increase it by 38%. There are of course other intangibles paid for by the government such as the initial investment, often the land and a part of the endowment too.
So it is consequence fair to say that that tuition in state university is subsidized by the government.
