An English professor asked President Barack Obama at a June 1 town hall in Elkhart, Indiana, about "crushing student debt" and why his policies have emphasized STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education.

"It used to be that most state universities were heavily subsidized by the state, so they kept tuition really, really low," President Obama said, explaining why the cost of public higher education rose sharply in the 1980s and 1990s.