Institutions of higher education lament the fact that policymakers have lost faith in them, particularly public higher education. One proof of such loss of faith is the substantial, steady, and sustained decline of share of public resources devoted to higher education. One unfortunate consequence of this decline in funding has been increased tuition. As such, the larger share of the burden of financing higher education falls to students and their families. On the other hand, policymakers have developed the impression that higher education is not doing its share to support the neediest students with the rise in tuition fees. In addition, policymakers felt that their efforts to support higher education with limited funds and limited will on the part of the polity to provide those funds are not being appreciated. In this article, the author examines why higher education and policymakers differ in perspective on matters concerning public higher education finance. The author explains that these differences in understanding occur because educational statistics can be misleading. (Contains 13 charts, 2 tables, and 8 resources.)