Commentary: Moore’s ‘devastating’ budget plan would cause irreparable harm to Md. community colleges

By Brad Phillips

The writer is the executive director of the Maryland Association of Community Colleges.

Gov. Wes Moore’s proposed fiscal year 2025 state budget, which was released on Jan. 18, includes the fourth largest cut to community colleges in the history of the Cade Funding formula, a $22 million reduction.

According to the calculations in the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act (BRFA), Garrett College would receive a 21% reduction from the previous year and many other community colleges would receive double digit decreases as well. This budget will still require the General Assembly to pass the BRFA, so there is still time to reverse this devastating recommendation that would cause unrepairable harm to students who are desperately trying to join the middle class and improve their quality of life.

The Cade formula was established in 1996 to ensure both quality at Maryland’s community colleges and establish more equitable funding across all segments of Maryland’s public higher education system. This was accomplished by linking what the public four-year institutions received per full-time equivalent student (FTES) to a percentage that would also distribute state support per FTES to Maryland’s community colleges as a matter of policy. Prior to the formula, no such link existed and funding from 1980 to 1993 showed that state aid to public four-year institutions increased 90% more than community colleges.

The Cade Formula link is one of the most significant aspects of how Maryland has funded higher education. It helps all segments remain unified in helping students achieve their academic goals instead of fighting each other for state support. Sadly, the BRFA rebases the Cade formula from 29% per FTES to 26.5%. The easiest way to understand this rebase is to imagine that for every dollar the state provides to public four-year intuitions, it would provide 29 cents. The BRFA reduces that to 26.5 cents, yet still provides a dollar to public four-year institutions.

The actions that are included in the BRFA are what is wrong with how the state finances higher education because it makes cuts that impact students who are the most vulnerable and are struggling. For students to access community colleges, they will be asked to contribute more through tuition. There is a rich body of research describing the impacts of tuition increases, especially on enrollment.

It is true that enrollment had been declining since 2012, which sadly can be aligned with the other two leading reductions in Cade support. However, our fall enrollment grew this year, by 8.3% which is four times greater than our public four-year institutions. Achieving the level of state support for the past two years helped grow enrollment but more importantly, it helped provide the support services our students need and resulted in a 25% increase in completions from when our enrollment started declining in 2012.  Sadly, cutting now when we are increasing enrollment stretches the budget even further, with less funding for more students.

So much is being asked of community colleges, more than ever before, yet funding for that work is completely severed from what we have been asked to accomplish. Our colleges are the backbone of our state’s economy. Workforce development is vital to everyone in Maryland and community colleges are the primary sector that trains the workforce by offering industry recognized credentials beyond degrees.  We are also responsible for implementing Maryland’s Blueprint legislation by providing post college and career opportunities to high school students at a discounted rate.

Community colleges are one of our state’s greatest assets. They play such a vital role in achieving economic and social mobility, yet this BRFA would reverse the gains we have made, harm our students, and increase inequity in how the state funds higher education. It is a step in the wrong direction and undermines the progress we have made over the last two years with full Cade funding.

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