Securing more higher-education funding, making tuition affordable and controlling textbook costs top the priorities of public university lobbyists and students for the coming General Assembly session.
“We?re trying to get off this roller coaster of funding,” said Patrick “P.J.” Hogan, a former state senator from Montgomery County who is now associate vice chancellor for governmental relations for the University System of Maryland.
“It?s difficult for institutions to plan, and very difficult for parents and students to plan.”
Universities won a major victory in the special session when lawmakers approved legislation that funnels revenue from corporate income taxes to colleges, the first dedicated higher-education funding in Maryland?s history.
But many college officials recognize that the additional $16 million in fiscal 2008 and $55.5 million in fiscal 2009 amount to only a small fraction of the state university system?s $3.8 billion operating budget.
To establish a consistent funding formula for colleges, instead of a funding stream that ebbs and flows depending on the state budget, a commission of lawmakers and university presidents met throughout last year to review options for a statewide funding model.
“If a formula is used, it must be able to weather difficult financial times,” according to an interim report by the Commission to Develop the Maryland Model for Funding Higher Education Commission.
The final recommendations of the commission will drive education policy in 2009, Hogan said.
Just in time for the legislative session, the university system has hired Andy Clark, a former state and federal lobbyist for Oregon universities, as its second lobbyist to help strengthen Maryland universities? voice not only in the state legislature, but also in Congress.
Andrew Friedson, president of student government at University of Maryland, College Park, said he plans to support a bill requiring textbook publishers to disclose to professors how much books costs and what cheaper earlier versions exist.
