The state\'s higher education budget for 2007 totals about $1.8 billion, with state universities seeing about $1.5 billion of that. The largest sums go to the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University, with more than $800 million dedicated to those schools. That number is $200 million less than what was allocated just four years ago when the figure was just shy of $2 billion dollars. There are serious problems with the funding system, and the biggest one is structural said Michael Boulus, the executive director of the Presidents Council, State of the Universities of Michigan. \"Because higher education funding is based on Michigan\'s general budget,\" Boulus said, \"as long as we\'re competing with corrections and Medicaid, we\'re going to have this problem.\"