Lt. Gov Anthony Brown addresses family and friends at his primary campaign party at the University of Maryland’s Riggs Alumni Center on June 24, 2014.
Over the past seven years, tuition at this state’s public colleges and universities has grown at an average rate of 3.3 percent per year, and the state’s institutes of higher education have dropped from the 10th most expensive to the 24th least.
Anthony Brown has promised more of the same.
The lieutenant governor, who tonight unofficially secured the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, promised in March to cap annual tuition increases at 3 percent during his four-year tenure as governor if elected in November.
Brown served for the better part of the past decade in an administration frequently touted for its commitment to affordable education. Under Gov. Martin O’Malley, the state froze public university tuition from 2007-2010; since then, the state’s public schools have faced a yearly 3 percent tuition hike.
That’s good for the second-smallest increase since 2008 in college tuition and fees in the nation, according to a 2014 College Board report.
The state’s jump from a lackluster No. 40 in college affordability to a middling yet promising No. 24 — in the space of six years, nonetheless — is heartening, and Brown’s pledge to continue capping tuition growth at 3 percent surely will edge the state closer to the forefront in ensuring an accessible college education for all state students.
Beyond the tuition cap, Brown has advocated state higher education leaders’ goal of increasing the percentage of adults with college degrees from 45 percent to 55 percent by 2025. He also threw his support behind the state’s Dream Act, which passed by referendum in 2012 and grants in-state tuition rates to undocumented college students.
Brown has expressed qualms, however, over one area of higher education in this state: Many noncitizen students fail to qualify for federal student loans, and if elected, Brown plans to establish a low-interest loan fund for those eligible for in-state tuition under the Dream Act.
In a campaign that featured little dialogue on higher education across the board, Brown tackled questions and issues regarding college affordability and accessibility head-on more frequently than his fellow Democratic hopefuls, and his platform articulates more concrete goals.
For years, O’Malley and the General Assembly’s legislation on higher education has garnered praise, and rightly so. As Brown’s platform stands, this state’s students largely can expect more of the same — and in this case, that’s not a bad thing.
