As the state Legislature reviews Gov. Rick Snyder's budget proposal in Lansing, University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman lambasted it before a group of faculty members Monday afternoon.

"We have gone in a decade from a top 10 state in higher education support to a bottom 10 state. We've raced to the bottom," Coleman said.

"Clearly the state has been under financial pressure.... But our prisons budgets have grown pretty darn dramatically, so you have to ask what’s more valuable" she continued. "We have taken the brunt (of budget cuts). The state has balanced its budget on the back of higher education."

Sndyer's proposal allots $1.4 billion of the state's $48.2 billion fiscal 2012-13 budget to higher education, up $36 million, or 3 percent, from the $1.34 fiscal 2011-12 allotment. Prisons are set to receive $1.6 billion and currently house 43,000 inmates.