As Penn State students, administrators and professors wait to hear how much money the university will get from state government this year, a study released last week shows that the news may be disheartening.

In 2005, America's public colleges and universities received the lowest state and local funding per student since 1980, according to a report released last Wednesday by State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO). The report used monetary figures that were adjusted for inflation.

The report pinpoints 2001 as the high-water mark for state support nationwide in the last 25 years. In 2001, $7,121 per student was appropriated to America's public institutions. By 2005, that number had dropped to $5,833, a decrease of about 18 percent, said David Wright, senior research analyst for SHEEO.

Pennsylvania has seen similar drops in legislative support per student. In 2001, Pennsylvania's state and local governments provided $6,362 per student, Wright said, adding that the number had dropped to $4,948 in 2005, a 22.2 percent decrease.

"The decrease in Pennsylvania actually outpaces the decrease nationally," he said.

Wright pointed out that Pennsylvania is a state where public institutions are moving toward relying more on tuition dollars than state support.

In 2005, students and their families financed 54.6 percent of public higher education operating revenues in Pennsylvania. A decade earlier, that number was 46.7 percent.

"The question there would be: How long can Pennsylvania sustain this shift in the way it funds its public school system? I'm sure that's an issue that institutions and legislatures are dealing with," Wright said.

Gov. Ed Rendell has proposed that Penn State receive $322.4 million from the state government next year. The Legislature should approve the final amount by June 30.

Since the proposal, Penn State President Graham Spanier has appeared before both the state House Appropriations Committee and the state Senate Appropriations Committee to make his case for Penn State to receive more than the proposed amount.

Penn State students have also made their voices heard by rallying in Harrisburg for increased appropriations March 14 in the annual Rally in the Rotunda.

In the hearings, Spanier was openly critical of Rendell's budget, telling legislators that the proposed appropriation would make a tuition freeze at 20 of the university's Commonwealth Campuses impossible.

"Penn State, for many, many years, has received less state support per student than the other state-related schools and less state support per student than any of the other Big Ten schools," Penn State spokesman Bill Mahon said.

Susan Hooper, press secretary for Pennsylvania's office of the budget, attributed the decrease in appropriations to many factors, saying that "budgets are never put together in a vacuum."

Upon coming into office in January 2003, Rendell faced a $2.4 billion budget shortfall as a result of actions by the prior administration, Hooper said.

"When Gov. Rendell came into office, he inherited a number of problems," she said. "Those problems contributed to cutbacks in higher education during the governor's first year in office."

This shortfall resulted in budget cuts throughout the state government, including a 5 percent cut for higher education, in the 2003-04 budget, Hooper said.

"It would not have been his preference, but it's what he had to do to have a balanced budget that year," Hooper said.

Hooper also pointed to "entitlements" -- parts of the budget for which the state is required by federal law to provide a certain amount of money. Those programs include K-12 education and special education.

Those parts of the budget, unlike higher education, Hooper said, are "set in stone."