This paper examines the redistribution impact of public higher education in California and Wisconsin. The focus is on state, rather than federal, subsidies and the undergraduate level. A study of the operation of the California higher education system indicates that income from poor and lower-middle income families is redistributed to upper-middle…

Recent interactions between the state government (and to a lesser extent the federal government) and public higher education in Wisconsin are examined, and some of the major issues and actions from 1965 to the present are reviewed in order to identify imbalances that could jeopardize a"health tension" between the two sectors. Some of the…