Newly elected Governor Larry Hogan gives his acceptance speech at the watch party held in Annapolis, MD on election night.

Twenty percent of likely voters in this state cited public education as the most important issue in deciding their vote for governor, according to an October Washington Post-university poll.

Of the roughly 1,000 state residents asked, 53 percent said they believed Democrat Anthony Brown would do a better job handling public education, compared with the 28 percent behind Republican Larry Hogan.

But on Nov. 4, the state’s voters elected Hogan, who campaigned strongly on improving the state’s economy and tax system. Over the course of the election cycle, little debate on education took place, which left some state residents wondering what the new Republican administration in Annapolis will do for the state’s higher education system.

“Unfortunately, we don’t know much about how higher education will be affected,” said Michael Hanmer, a government and politics professor at this university. “[Hogan’s] campaign was focused on taxes and he was able to leverage that issue in getting the votes he needed. In some areas, such as higher education, he didn’t really say much at all.”

Answers might not come soon for state residents, either, as Hogan announced Wednesday he will wait until his Jan. 21 inauguration to discuss his policy plans.

Tuition costs

Hogan spent much of the campaign season fending off Brown’s attacks on the Republican businessman’s tuition policy. Brown attempted to connect Hogan to the 40 percent statewide tuition increases during former Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich’s tenure, when Hogan was a state cabinet secretary.

During Ehrlich’s term from 2003 to 2007, tuition and fees for in-state students at this university grew by more than $1,500. In the eight years afterward under Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley, in-state students have seen slightly more than $1,000 in tuition and fee increases, according to university budget records.

Hogan repeatedly said he did not support Ehrlich’s tuition increases and promised he would work to reduce spending at public institutions to reduce the financial burden on students.

“I would not anticipate the kind of tuition increases that happened under the last Republican governor, because the price of college is so high as it is that we can’t go much further without totally bankrupting people,” Del. Doyle Niemann (D-Prince George’s) said.

State Sen. Jim Rosapepe (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel) said he hopes Hogan will continue the state’s commitment to higher education under O’Malley. During his two terms, O’Malley froze state tuition for four years, followed by annual 3 percent increases. Rosapepe noted that with a strong legislative majority, state Democrats have the power to override a veto, which he said he would do if Hogan doesn’t stay committed to his higher-education promises.

“I hope the governor will work with us and invest in higher education, and if he doesn’t, we’re going to have to stand up and fight,” Rosapepe said.

The University System of Maryland has benefited from the O’Malley administration over the past eight years, said P.J. Hogan, the system’s vice chancellor for government relations. The university system became higher-quality, more affordable and more accessible, he said.

“We don’t want to go back to a time when tuitions were skyrocketing and it was becoming very unaffordable for people to attend college, but at the same time, it’s about choices,” P.J. Hogan said. “A high-quality system with affordability and accessibility does require a public investment.”

State funding for the university system

Larry Hogan’s administration will address the amount of state funding the university system will receive. As the governing body of the state’s 13 public institutions, the system relies on the state for a portion of its funding.

The state’s budget shortfall of nearly $600 million complicates the issue, as the system is a large part of the discretionary budget of the state, P.J. Hogan said.

Still, system officials are hopeful Larry Hogan and his bipartisan transition team will recognize the importance of higher education in crafting a new budget.

“Gov.-elect Hogan has said that the state needs to reduce its spending level, so he’s going to have to make choices about how and where the state spends its money,” P.J. Hogan said. “I do think he understands the importance of the USM, though, and the state’s higher education in general.”

In the fiscal year 2015 budget, drafted in February 2014, the university system requested an overall growth from the previous year in state funds of 8 percent, roughly $92.2 million.

In fiscal year 2014, the university system received an adjusted $1.154 billion, and it hopes to receive $1.246 billion in 2015.

“The USM is a key part of the economic force of the state — in the workforce we produce, the research at our institutions, the technology transfer and commercialization and companies that start up and come out of our institutions,” P.J. Hogan said.

State’s strategic plan

Under O’Malley, the university system’s strategic plan aligned with state goals, P.J. Hogan said, which he believes are relatively universal.

“I hope that the governor-elect has very similar goals,” he said. “It’s what’s best for the state.”

These shared goals included creating a well-educated workforce, closing the state’s achievement gap and spurring economic development coming out of universities.

Hogan’s campaign issued a public statement that, if elected, Hogan would “put the interests of parents, teachers and students ahead of bureaucrats, work across the political aisle to shift control of schools to the local level and encourage innovation,” according to The Washington Post, but he declined to expand on specific policy initiatives he would create.

Brown campaigned with an emphasis on career and technology education and a 10-point plan for addressing the achievement gap, two initiatives that state educators widely applauded.

University system officials added that closing the achievement gap has been a major focus over the past eight years, with a statewide goal of having 55 percent of the adult population hold a post-secondary degree.

“To get to that number, we’re going to have to educate a whole different demographic than we have historically,” Vice Chancellor Hogan said. “With the state’s changes, if we continue to focus on the demographics in higher education that we have in the past, we won’t even stay at 45 percent.”

The system hopes to reach out and expand higher education access to low-income individuals and an increasing number of first-generation students, Vice Chancellor Hogan said.

“That’s the makeup of Maryland,” he said, “and higher education needs to reflect that.”