Tuition increases are by far going towards administrative faculty rather than academic faculty. Most academic faculty, especially those doing research, are gett

Tuition increases are by far going towards administrative faculty rather than academic faculty. Most academic faculty, especially those doing research, are getting their own funding and not burdening the tax payer in the slightest. Research is also incredibly important, especially at state schools, so that undergraduate students have more opportunity to participate in and learn from active research. In my experience having worked at both prestigious private and low ranking state schools, state school doing research are much more willing to have undergrads involved in research. I've seen plenty of young students coming from low income, rural homes go on to become more successful than they ever imagined because they had access to research facilities and teams. edit: it's worth noting as another commenter has that most of the teaching in universities is done by highly underpaid grad students.