Previously in "Change," William Doyle has argued that higher education leaders must face up to what has been called the "new normal": decreased state funding for higher education on a per-student basis and a prediction that funding will not recover to levels seen in the past. In this article, Doyle states that we have now entered a time when that prediction will be tested. "Inside Higher Education" has reported that "the new normal might be more normal than new," as 31 states have increased their (nominal) funding for higher education between fiscal years 2012 and 2013. This article asks the following question: Could it be that higher education will rebound from cuts and that we can expect a return to better budgets in the future?" To answer this question, Doyle first turns to the overall state budget picture and then describes the recent history of funding in four categories of states: (1) In one group, higher education has been on a roller coaster ride of appropriations cuts, followed many times by rapid tuition increases, followed by appropriations increases and tuition freezes; (2) In another, there has been a steady downward trend in appropriations to higher education since 2000, with a consequent rise in tuition; (3) In a very few states, the budget picture for higher education actually improved over the last five years. These states tend to be heavily affected by the rise in energy production. Tuition revenues in these states have not tended to follow a predictable pattern; and (4) Some states appear to have gone over a cliff in terms of state funding for public higher education. Most of them have experienced rapid year-after-year cuts at least since 2007 and are slated for more, with compensatory rises in tuition. The data for this analysis come from the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) finance report, released in spring 2013. SHEEO uses data compiled originally by the Grapevine project, located at the Center for the Study of Education Policy at Illinois State University.