Hogan: $200M is ‘final offer’ on lawsuit

Governor’s proposal still much lower than what HBCU coalition asking state to pay

Gov. Larry Hogan is making a “final offer” of $200 million to settle a longstanding lawsuit over disparities in Maryland’s higher education system, his administration said Thursday, a figure far less than half of what the advocates for the state’s four historically black universities have demanded.

The case — which has pitted a coalition of HBCU advocates against the state for 13 years — claims Maryland fostered segregation by allowing better-funded academic programs at traditionally white universities to undermine similar ones at historically black schools.

Lawyers representing the HBCU coalition sent a letter two weeks ago to elected officials proposing the state pay $577 million, “spread over a reasonable time period.”

“Governor Hogan remains interested in resolving this matter with a comprehensive settlement,” his chief legal counsel Robert Scholz wrote in Thursday’s letter to Del. Darryl Barnes, chair of the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus. Hogan, a Republican, “is prepared to make a final offer to resolve this case of up to $200 million in funds over a ten year period, commencing in fiscal year 2021.”

The two sides were unable to reach a settlement in court-ordered confidential mediation earlier this year, and have since taken the debate into the public arena.

At that time, Hogan’s last public offer was $100 million over a ten-year period.

After the coalition put out its settlement offer earlier this month, Barnes reached out to the governor’s office to schedule a meeting to talk through the $577 million figure. he said no meeting took place before Thursday’s letter.

Barnes called Hogan’s latest offer “extremely low and, in my opinion, unacceptable.”

“To not have any conversation with the black caucus and then to hardline and say, ‘Take $200 million or leave it,’ I don’t think is right, I don’t think is fair and I think it is unacceptable,” he said.

Scholz said in Thursday’s letter he is willing to meet with Barnes.

Scholz’s letter argues the state has made massive investments over the past two decades to “redress the vestiges of discrimination in its public higher education system,” and that the Hogan administration has provided record funding to the historically black universities.

He also pointed out the difficulties HBCUs across the country are facing as the higher education ecosystem evolves.

“Changes in American higher education in recent years made the policy choices to integrate the HBCUs difficult,” Scholz wrote.

The lawyers fighting on behalf of Maryland’s four HBCUs — Morgan State, Coppin State, Bowie State and the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore — also said the offer is not enough.