It is no secret college tuition has spiked while government funding has plummeted for public colleges across America but, according to data released by the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), the damage is much worse than one might assume, making it clear where the state governments’ priorities lie.

A chart detailing how much college tuition rose between 2008 and 2013 shows tuition increased in every single state, with California as the state with the second-fastest price increase at 72 percent. State funding per student is just as dismal within the same time period: Every state has decreased the amount spent per student, except for Wyoming and North Dakota.

According to the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) spring 2013 report on higher education finance reform, the method of funding post-secondary education outlined by the CBPP data is unsustainable. The report acknowledges the current system may have worked in the past, but that time has come and gone and reform is desperately needed.

Enrollment in undergraduate degrees has risen dramatically over the past 10 years in both public and private colleges, according to NASBO data, yet money continues to be siphoned off from these schools.

From purely an economic point of view, college degrees can be quite valuable for the nation as a whole. A new report from the U.S. Treasury details how a bachelor’s degree can increase a person’s wages by 64 percent compared to a high school graduate, and how that wage gap has been widening steadily since 1915.

The report went on to show how any college degree helps a person immensely in snagging a well-paying  job; the unemployment rate for an associate’s degree is 6.8 percent, which is under the national average for 2012 of 7.6 percent.

Yet, even with the obvious benefits that funding post-secondary education has for everyone involved, funds are still pulled from colleges every year. The issue is apparently so contentious that it was put to a vote last year in Proposition 30.

The education of a nation should be of paramount importance to that nation’s government – right behind the health and safety of said nation – because an education benefits both the individual and society at large. What the federal and state governments seem to be doing flies in the face of that concept – student loan interest rates will double in July if Congress does not do anything about it, according to the Treasury report.

Students are the future of a country, so they should not be handicapped by debt and exorbitant fees.