what's all this about? well, several states already have raised fees and tuition at state institutions to make up for the bad economy. and all these budget cuts come after the federal government has poured billions of dollars into higher education over the past year. >> yeah, and our josh levs is here with a look at how much taxpayer money has been spent to prop up the nation's ailing colleges. and josh, either way you look at it, they need the money and it's not good for a lot of folks. >> to me, this is one of the starkest numbers in the entire fight. because when you hear people complain, imagine how much worse it would be if they had not gotten federal money. we've been looking at that stimulus. keep in mind we don't actually have stimulus money, it's all borrowed money the government's paying interest on. $17.2 billion have been poured into higher education from that stimulus alone over the past year. and still, even with that young people all over the country and