COLLEGE PARK, Md.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich proposed raising higher education funding by $172 million for the upcoming fiscal year, an increase state university officials said would enable them to keep tuition increases relatively low during the next academic year.
Included in Ehrlich’s proposals is a $117.2 million, or 14.5 percent, hike in funding for the state’s 13 public institutions that compose the University System of Maryland.
“Higher education in the state of Maryland is on a roll,” Ehrlich told a full University of Maryland auditorium that included college presidents, regents of the state system, university workers and Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams.
The governor’s proposal includes spending $3.7 million to seed a $1.5 billion fundraising campaign, adding $19 million for need-based scholarships, giving Morgan State University $9.5 million and allotting $14.5 million for community colleges. The state’s historically Black colleges would receive an additional $5.9 million.
The proposed budget, which would have to be approved by the General Assembly, will likely lead to tuition increases for the 2006-2007 academic year no greater than 4.5 percent at system schools, according to chancellor William Kirwan. There may be little or no tuition growth at some of the 11 campuses in the university system, he said.
“It will be a very modest increase,” said Kirwan, one of several higher education officials who loudly praised Ehrlich’s budget.
