Colleges that don’t graduate students don’t have to worry in Maryland. Taxpayer money flows to them regardless of performance.
Coppin State University (CSU) is a case in point. According to a report released earlier this month by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), “Diplomas and Dropouts,” only 19 percent of students graduate within six years from CSU, a historically black college in Baltimore. That makes it the worst performing college in the region among its peers and one of the 10 worst in the country, according to the report.
But state taxpayers spent over $128 million in the last two fiscal years and will spend another $12 million next fiscal year on capital projects alone, according to the Department of Legislative Services. That is 17 percent of the total amount spent on higher education projects in Maryland in that time period.
School officials provide no evidence for the case that the new buildings will improve their performance other than hope. In testimony before the state Senate Budget and Taxation Committee in February, CSU president Reginald Avery said, “The provision of funds to cover the cost to operate the physical education complex will É undoubtedly play an important role in helping the university to attract and retain new students and help us to become more competitive.”
Not once in his testimony did he mention the school’s graduation rate, despite an extensive discussion of how he is working to improve it. Reginald Ross, the vice president for enrollment management at CSU, wrote in an email that, “academically, the development of technologically advanced classrooms, cutting-edge science labs, and appropriate space for support services that that will be housed within these facilities will enable us to be more viable with other institutions.” But that still doesn’t answer the question.
Taxpayers also shower Morgan State University in Baltimore with state aid despite a 38 percent graduation rate. It received about $20.6 million in the last two years for capital projects and is slated to get $44.8 million this year. Bowie State University, which has a 37 percent graduation rate, is slated to get $28.2 million for capital improvements in the coming year.
Joe Popovich, vice president for planning at Morgan, said the school graduation rate is at the mean for urban schools like MSU. He said the school aims to raise its graduation rate to 50 percent by early intervention for students.
This year for the first time the school is requiring all incoming freshmen to attend a summer program to prepare them for school. It also tests students to place them in classes appropriate to their knowledge level and offers an extensive tutoring problem.
CSU’s Ross said the school plans to raise its graduation rate to 35 percent by 2015 by better targeting students in need of academic help, including men, who graduate at a lower rate than women.
As “Diplomas and Dropouts” says, student preparation varies widely and plays a large role in whether they are ready for college classes. And according to a report prepared for the Maryland Higher Education Commission, “Nearly half (48.3 percent) of the high school graduates in 2004-2005 who enrolled at a Maryland college or university directly from high school were assessed as needing remediation in math, reading or writing. This problem has been concentrated at the community colleges, which have open admissions policies, and the historically black institutions.”
The financial situation of students also plays a role. Ross said CSU educates more poor students than any other Maryland four-year college or university. That means many students must work and go to school, which impacts their ability to attend classes and do course work.
But can’t Maryland dream a little bigger? Demographics do not have to be destiny, as the report shows. Nationally, graduation rates range 37 points among the most competitive schools with the most prepared students. For “competitive” schools, the category that CSU falls into, graduation rates range from 12 to 89 percent.
That begs the question of why legislators don’t push harder for results at every level of public education before handing over taxpayer dollars, especially in a recession.
As the report said, “The bottom line is that students enrolling in a college or university should have a reasonable expectation that they will earn a degree in a timely fashion. Where they do not, we must confront challenges more profound than a simple need for more transparency.”
It is not fair to students or taxpayers to focus aid on schools that fail to prepare students to become productive citizens. University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), Frostburg State University and Towson University all provide a low-cost, quality education and a likely path to graduation and a higher paying job that comes with a diploma.
Not all state colleges and universities are equal. Funding them as if they were rewards failure and perpetuates poor results for students most in need of a quality education.
Examiner columnist Marta Mossburg is a senior fellow with the Maryland Public Policy Institute and lives in Baltimore.
