TWO BILLION dollars a year should buy Maryland taxpayers a superlative system of public colleges and universities. Sadly, it doesn't.
Though steps have been taken to improve the caliber of learning on state campuses, these efforts fall short of the goals laid out by the legislature in 1988: To create a superior flagship campus, improve coordination and performance of Baltimore-area schools, ensure students' ability to afford college and enhance historically black institutions.
Ten years ago, after a prolonged deadlock, state legislators and then-Gov. William Donald Schaefer crafted a cumbersome, two-level system to run Maryland's 13 four-year public colleges and universities and its community colleges. The aim was to jump-start a system stuck in the status quo.
However well-intended, this structure has not worked. There is too much overlapping authority between the Maryland Higher Education Commission and the University System of Maryland, too much red tape and a myopic focus on giving all campuses the same treatment at budget time -- not on pursuing excellence.
The result has been a "dumbing down" of the system. No campus is encouraged to outshine its siblings. A "one-size-fits-all" mentality predominates.
Over the next three days, The Sun's editorial page will examine the state of Maryland's higher-education system, its problems and some possible resolutions.
A task force, led by retired Naval Academy superintendent Adm. Charles R. Larson, has been conducting a compressed study of "the governance, coordination and funding of the University System of Maryland." The group is to begin formulating recommendations this week for the General Assembly.
It won't be easy for the panel. The group has 23 members, including college presidents, the chairman of the board of regents, the secretary of higher education and others likely to resist revolutionary changes.
Another upheaval in Maryland higher education, though, may not be necessary. Two prestigious national education groups, after studying the situation, urged modifications that would dramatically alter the way state colleges operate but would not obliterate the existing governing structure.
The task force must deal with the reality that this state's flagship campus at College Park has been ill-served over the years by state policy-makers. It has not received the money to transform itself into an all-star public research university. Despite its enviable location in the Washington suburbs, College Park isn't considered in a league with flagship public universities in Wisconsin, Michigan, California, North Carolina or Virginia.
Governors and legislatures have failed to make College Park's eminence a priority. Instead, they have played politics with education dollars, spreading the cash to campuses with large voting constituencies.
Not until College Park's popular former president, William E. "Brit" Kirwan, resigned suddenly in January did the attitude in Annapolis soften. Lack of support for higher education in the State House, and the constraints imposed on him by education boards, played a large role in Mr. Kirwan's decision to leave College Park for Ohio State University.
But other campuses are frustrated by Maryland's ineffectual governance system:
* The University of Maryland, Baltimore County chafes at the system's lack of responsiveness to its urgent pleas for money to meet the demand for science and technology graduates.
* The downtown Baltimore professional campus, with expensive and specialized teaching needs, is starved for funds to support its health sciences schools and its efforts to turn research discoveries into for-profit ventures.
* The University of Baltimore can't get funds to build student residential housing in the Mount Royal area.
* Towson University, the state's second-largest campus, is so frustrated with the lack of support to meet an enrollment boom that its president wants out of the system.
"The university community," said Towson President Hoke L. Smith, "feels like a second-class citizen. The system is not our advocate." That same thought has been echoed by presidents on other campuses.
This is unhealthy.
Maryland cannot compete in the information age without a strengthened network of aggressive, innovative public colleges and universities. Putting the state on the fast track toward that goal should be the Larson task force's prime objective.
Tomorrow: College Park's dilemma.
Pub Date: 12/13/98