<P> States generally charge higher tuition to out - of - state students . The higher fees are based on the theory that students from the state, or much more often their parents, have contributed to subsidizing the university by paying state taxes, while out - of - state students and their parents have not . </P> <P> Every U.S. state has at least one public university to its name and the largest states have more than thirty . This is partly as a result of the 1862 Morrill Land - Grant Acts, which gave each eligible state 30,000 acres (12,141 ha) of federal land to sell to finance public institutions offering courses of study in practical fields in addition to the liberal arts . With the help of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Higher Education Act of 1965 and the Education Amendments of 1972, public universities became even more accessible for women, minorities and lower income applicants . </P> <P> Public universities generally rely on subsidies from their respective state government . "The historical data for private and public institutions reveal that public institutions have always been more dependent on external support than have private institutions ." Recently, state support of public universities has been declining, forcing many public universities to seek private support . The real level of state funding for public higher education has doubled from $30 billion in 1974 to nearly $60 billion in 2000 . Meanwhile, the percent of state appropriations for the cost of schooling per student at public university has fallen from 78% in 1974 to 43% in 2000 . The increasing use of teaching assistants in public universities is a testament to waning state support . To compensate, some professional graduate programs in law, business, and medicine rely almost solely on private funding . </P> <P> The oldest public universities are the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Rutgers University, and The University of Georgia, although the overall oldest university now designated as public is The College of William & Mary, which was founded by a Crown charter in 1693 and was originally a private institution . The University of South Carolina (1801) is the longest continuously supported public university; Ohio University (1804) is the oldest public university in continuous operation . </P>

Where does the funding for public colleges come from