Vermont higher education faces the twin problem of overall underfunding for instruction and academic support and an overreliance on tuition dollars to supply that funding. This problem has grown since a decision in the 1980s to pursue a high tuition-high aid approach for state funding, coupled with subsequent overall state disinvestment. Act 148 – which created a working group to address this problem – is a recognition that these issues are at the core of the state’s challenge in sustaining a high quality system of public higher education.