Reserve some pandemic relief for higher education
Last summer as the COVID-19 pandemic worsened and the economic outlook for Maryland darkened, one of the first items on the chopping block to keep state government’s budget balanced was higher education. From community colleges to the University System of Maryland, nearly half of the first round of the initial $413 million in budget cuts approved by the state’s Board of Public Works was to post-secondary schools.
It was a tough time for colleges as many recognized that their students faced economic hardships as well and froze tuition. But scholarship and financial aid programs suffered. Some part-time faculty and support staff lost their jobs. Meanwhile, schools had to reinvent themselves for the times with more elaborate housekeeping, socially-distanced meals and quarantine living spaces.
Last Thursday, President Joe Biden signed into law the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that, in addition to providing $1,400 direct payments to individuals earning $75,000 annually or less, includes $350 billion for state and local governments with relatively few strings attached. In Annapolis, Gov. Larry Hogan and General Assembly leaders are even now mulling over how best to use the state’s share ($6.36 billion) as they finalize the Fiscal 2022 state budget. Presumably, they will be guided by a desire to offset some of the worst impacts of the pandemic that has disproportionately hurt women, minorities and low-income workers. And to replenish the state’s Rainy Day Fund to ensure the state budget remains balanced well into the future. But they must also keep on eye on long-term needs, particularly Maryland’s economy. If and when the nation finally achieves herd immunity and COVID19 is mostly in the rearview mirror — and with it the sugar rush of enormous federal relief payments — there will still be the business of putting people back to work.
One of the targets in this effort should be higher education. And not just in Maryland. The Center for American Progress estimates that at least $1.9 billion has been cut from higher education budgets in a total of 22 states (including Maryland) resulting in more than 300,000 layoffs. Enrollment is down, particularly at the community college level. Some of that was to be expected. Higher education accounts for too large a share of the state spending pie to be ignored. But it’s a worrisome trend that can’t be allowed to continue, not in states that recognize the future of economic growth rests in cultivating the knowledge economy.
How important is a robust higher education? The tech industry, once seen as a novelty, now represents 10% of the U.S. economy, and it follows institutions of higher learning like bees to honey. Innovations, startups, global commerce, much of the job creators get their start on college campuses. And this is one area where the Baltimore area has some advantage with no fewer than seven private, nonprofit colleges as well as five of the University System of Maryland’s 12 schools (as well as a sixth, Morgan State University, that’s not in the system). Baltimore is ripe for growth in this area.
That’s not to suggest higher education has been wholly ignored. Last year’s federal stimulus efforts, including the CARES Act, provided billions of relief for higher education nationwide.
And lawmakers in Annapolis are close to settling on $577 million in additional funding for the state’s four historically Black colleges and universities to help offset past discriminatory practices that shortchanged Coppin State, Morgan, Bowie State and the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore. But such funding ought to be viewed like public infrastructure as an investment in future generations. Money set aside today (and gradually spent across many years) is destined to pay major dividends.
Nor should tax dollars simply be tossed at campuses to make fancier dorm spaces and sports venues or more luxurious dining halls. None of the American Rescue Plan funds (or public dollars generally) should be spent frivolously or without accountability. But expanding and strengthening academic opportunities to generate well-paying jobs for the surrounding community? That’s exactly the kind of spending that Governor Hogan and lawmakers ought to find attractive, particularly if they value lasting economic growth. Any state that is preparing to hand out $1,000 bonuses to state employees at a total cost of $74 million, as Mr. Hogan last week proposed, can surely afford to also set aside money for the far greater and more sustainable payoff that comes with operating world-class colleges and universities.