For three decades, Maryland has given public dollars to its private colleges at levels higher than almost anywhere else in the country.
But now, lawmakers and public education allies are asking: Can a strapped state continue to give millions in unrestricted aid to the Johns Hopkins University, Loyola College and 15 other private institutions?
Call it the $43 million question. That is the amount the state gives annually to Maryland's private colleges under a formula based on student population.
As it happens, $43 million is also the amount of the latest cut to Maryland's higher education budget proposed by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. The reductions have forced a rare midyear tuition increase and talk of layoffs at public colleges.
After leaving the formula largely untouched for years, lawmakers are weighing a proposal that would cut taxpayer support for private colleges by more than half, to about $21 million. Under a recommendation made last week by legislative analysts, private institutions would receive public aid based on how many in-state students they have, rather than on their total enrollment, as is now the case.
The proposal has provoked alarm among private college officials, many of whom will be in Annapolis today on an annual lobbying visit to tell legislators that a sharp cut in state funding would devastate their schools.
Lawmakers say they expect to give the proposed reduction serious consideration as they try to balance the budget.
"It will probably be pretty attractive in our search for additional cuts," said Del. John L. Bohanan Jr., a St. Mary's County Democrat and member of the House appropriations subcommittee that oversees education spending. "We'll listen to the downsides ... but it will be hard to overlook a recommendation like that in times like this."
Added Del. Richard S. Madaleno Jr., a Montgomery County Democrat on the same subcommittee, "Everything is on the table from a cuts standpoint, and I wouldn't be surprised if they look at the formula for private higher education."
Named for Sellinger
The formula dates to 1972, when the financial struggles of several small private colleges prompted the state to begin devoting funds to independent higher education. Named after the former Loyola College president, the Rev. Joseph A. Sellinger, the formula provides private colleges with a fixed percentage of the funding for public universities. If unchanged, next year it will send $17.6 million to Hopkins, $5.5 million to Loyola and $2.9 million to McDaniel College, among others.
The private colleges say the support has helped sustain a diverse higher education system in which they offer programs not available elsewhere and absorb students who might otherwise crowd public colleges. They argue that the funding - about 5 percent of what the state's 13 public colleges receive - has also helped them attract students from other states, many of whom stay in Maryland after they graduate.
"You want the best and the brightest," said Tina M. Bjarekull, president of Maryland's Independent College and University Association. "You want to retain them so they don't go somewhere else."
Only a handful of states provide taxpayer support to private colleges through an annual formula - and among those that do, almost none gives as much as Maryland.
New York gives $44 million in state aid to its private colleges, but the money is divided among 101 colleges. New Jersey gives $24 million to its 14 private colleges. Michigan gives about $10 million annually to 50 schools, and Illinois gives about $20 million to 98 schools.
Other states support private higher education, but not through formula-based aid. Pennsylvania gave about $83 million this year for specific programs at private universities, mostly medical schools.
Virginia gives grants worth $2,217 each to about 17,000 residents attending the state's private colleges. Florida and North Carolina also provide support that goes directly to students attending private colleges.
Maryland private college presidents say that they benefit less than colleges in some states when it comes to capital funding (the state gives them about $6 million a year) and financial aid (their students receive about 20 percent of all financial aid provided by the state). Still, they acknowledge the uniqueness of the Sellinger formula.
"Having been in Pennsylvania and Ohio in higher education, it's great to be here, because Maryland has been a very generous state," said Hood College President Ronald J. Volpe.
Gauging the impact
Limiting the formula to enrollments of Maryland residents would especially affect schools with many out-of-state students, such as Hopkins, Loyola, Goucher College and the Maryland Institute College of Art. College officials say changing the formula might lead schools to recruit less outside the state and adopt a provincial outlook.
That's unlikely, said John B. Wilson, chief lobbyist for New Jersey's independent colleges, which receive funding based on in-state enrollments but don't focus recruiting on New Jersey residents, he said.
Officials at Maryland private colleges - whose state funding was cut this year the same 8 percent as the public colleges - say a 50 percent reduction in the formula could imperil some smaller schools. This claim, too, is met with skepticism by officials elsewhere, who note that hundreds of private colleges flourish in states without public support.
"It would be hard to understand why [a cut in state aid] would make a huge difference," said William B. Proctor, director of Florida's coordinating agency for higher education. "There are states that give no money to privates, and they have small colleges, and they stay open."
Fighting perceptions
As they defend the formula, independent college presidents say they are fighting the perception that they cater to wealthy students. The state's private colleges give out $250 million a year in financial aid, much of it to poor students, they note.
"There's a fallacy that we're all fat and happy and have a bunch of rich kids. If that was ever true, it's not true today," said McDaniel President Joan Develin Coley.
Private institutions are also fighting the perception that large endowments reduce their need for taxpayer support. Hopkins, for instance, has an endowment of $1.69 billion. It has received more than $100 million from New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, among other gifts, and it pays its president, William R. Brody, a salary of $677,564, the third-highest among the country's private colleges.
Hopkins Provost Steven Knapp said that much of the endowment is for specific purposes, while the unrestricted state aid helps pay for operating costs, including the overhead that allows the university to seek research funding.
In past years, public universities have offered little objection to the aid; it has received less scrutiny than the $3.75 million the state is spending on textbooks at private elementary and secondary schools. However, the budget crisis has sparked new debate on public campuses.
"People have no idea how much money is going to private higher education, and [when they hear] they say, 'How much?'" said University of Maryland, Baltimore President David J. Ramsay. The $43 million sent to private colleges roughly equals the amount the state is spending this year on drug treatment in Baltimore.
Absent allies
As the debate over the formula develops in Annapolis, the private colleges are missing some of their most influential allies, including former Senate Budget and Taxation Committee Chairwoman Barbara A. Hoffman, a Hopkins employee who lost her bid for re-election.
Lawmakers said this week that they do not doubt the benefits that Hopkins and other private colleges bring Maryland. The question, they said, is whether the colleges could continue to flourish with less aid, and whether some of the money could be better used elsewhere.
"We see [the private colleges] as part of the fabric of higher education in Maryland," said Sen. Patrick J. Hogan, a Montgomery County Democrat who chairs a Senate budget subcommittee that oversees education spending. At the same time, he said, "We have to go through all the options on cuts and say, 'Which are the best to do, and which will do the least harm?'"