One reason colleges and universities have had to tighten fiscal belts in recent years was a decline in funding obtained from the states.

However, recent numbers show that the money belt may be loosening a bit.

State support for higher education is coming back. Slowly.

Spending by legislatures on colleges ticked up nearly 6% this fiscal year after four years of recession-related declines. The gains are uneven but widespread: 40 states saw upticks and 10 saw drops, according to an annual survey compiled by researchers at Illinois State University.

Despite the broad increases, state support for higher education remains 11% below where it was five years ago in real-dollar terms.

“The impact of the recession varied in different states and you can see that reflected in the data,” said Jim Palmer, a professor at Illinois State University, who conducted the survey.

Three states accounted for more than half of the total increases this fiscal year: California, Florida and Illinois.

The uptick comes two years after a 7.5% drop in state financial support to colleges. Last fiscal year, the overall decline was 0.4%, while at least 30 states raised funding, the Illinois State University study found.

For students at public schools the nascent recovery has meant a moderation in bills but not debt. Published tuition and fees rose an average of 2.9% last school year for in-state students at four-year public schools, the smallest one-year increase since 1975-1976, according to a recent report from the College Board, a New York nonprofit that tracks university costs.

As government aid also declined, students continued to fall deeper into debt and more failed to keep up with payments. The amount of government aid received last fiscal year by students at public schools fell to $6,646—nearly $2,500 less than five years ago. One in 10 students now defaults on a loan within two years of starting repayment. The default rate has risen for six straight years, according to the U.S. Department of Education.