There are two rather different points of view used to account for rising tuition in public higher education. One is the market power model, presumably accepted by the president. It asserts that subsidies and grants to students increase demand, which gives colleges more ability to raise tuition. working rule of thumb for this case is that listed tuition will rise by 50 cents and net tuition will drop by 50 cents for every dollar increase in the subsidy. Public universities, while possessing some pricing discretion, are not monopolies.