Tuition

The state university system's Board of Regents approved a 3 percent tuition increase Wednesday for most in-state students, bringing a routine close to a budget process that was briefly thrown into chaos by the General Assembly's inability to agree on a spending plan. Though the university system received $5.3 million in cuts in Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposed $2 billion operating budget for 2013, the trims were not deep enough to force a change in the planned tuition increase. "It's a small enough number that I think the campuses will be able to absorb it without any significant impact to student services or to academic quality," said Chancellor William E. Kirwan of the cut. System workers will not face furloughs, Kirwan said, though most salaries will remain frozen aside from a 2 percent cost-of-living increase scheduled to begin Jan. 1. The presidents of each campus will decide how to implement the cuts.

In her inspiring speech Tuesday, May 22 at Howard Community College's graduation, Danielle Allison began by noting that she had never even attended a commencement speech before, much less given one. "As a first-generation college student," she told her fellow graduates, "attending a graduation is a new experience for me. " And that is the beauty of community colleges such as Howard. They tend to serve people who were not expected to go to college at all - men and women, as Allison pointed out in her speech, who are "first-generation students, non-traditional students and the disadvantaged finding their way, underdogs who some counted out, and overlooked.

Harford Community College students could have to pay $8 more per credit hour next year, nearly 10 percent more, even as the college plans to spend less to operate than it expects to spend this year. HCC officials also plan to spend nearly $12 million in capital building and renovation projections next year to add and upgrade facilities. The college is anticipating spending $45.6 million to operate in the fiscal year beginning July 1, which is about 1.4 percent less than in the current budget year, John Cox, HCC's vice president for finance, operations and government relations, said at Tuesday evening's monthly HCC Board of Trustees meeting.

An all day scrapbooking fundraiser will be held Saturday, May 19, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Phelps Center, 701 Montgomery St. Proceeds will go toward the Tuition Stabilization Fund for St. Mary of the Mills School. Cost is $30, which includes personal crop space, prizes and lunch. Forward your payment by May 11 to St. Mary of the Mills, 106 St. Mary's Place, Laurel, MD 20707, and include your email address. For information, contact Tanya Holt, 202-409-6092 or tholt@thectgroupllc.com , subject St. Mary's Crop.

We all know that the cost of higher education continues to increase at an exponential rate. The problem is real and, not to sound apocalyptic, getting worse. Recently, as has already been reported, the state legislature failed to approve its proposed budget and ended up with a "doomsday" budget that shortchanges the University of Maryland College Park and many other institutions and government programs. Specifically, the doomsday measure includes a potential 10 percent (or greater) tuition increase.

The state's top court has agreed to decide if Maryland's Dream Act will be on the ballot this fall. The Court of Appeals said this week it will hear CASA de Maryland's appeal of a judge's decision to allow the referendum on the 2010 law. The court scheduled arguments for June 12. The controversial measure was designed to provide college tuition discounts to certain illegal immigrants. Opponents blocked the law from taking effect last year by obtaining enough signatures to bring it to a referendum.

The budget package passed by the Maryland state Senate has many good elements -- investments in local schools, a cap on tuition hikes at public colleges, more money for road repairs and cuts in nonessential spending. However, it also includes a provision making it easier for county councils to override voter-imposed property tax limits. Five counties - Prince George's, Montgomery, Anne Arundel, Talbot, and Wicomico - currently have such limits. Whether or not you think your local property tax rate is high enough to support good schools, we should all be able to agree that the voters' will ought to be respected.

Voters will decide in November if they want to allow in-state tuition for some illegal immigrants at Maryland's public colleges and universities, an Anne Arundel County judge ruled Friday. Circuit Judge Ronald A. Silkworth rejected arguments by immigrant advocacy group Casa de Maryland and others that the law adopted by the General Assembly last year cannot be the subject of a referendum. The group's attorneys had argued that the law was an appropriations measure and therefore could not be put before voters.

President Barack Obama is right. For several decades, college tuitions in our country have risen relentlessly, faster than inflation and faster than economic growth - much like health care costs. Unless we get them under control, we'll continue to fall behind other countries in advanced skills. The good news is that Maryland has developed the model for how to do it. But we've just scratched the surface. There are four major ways to make college more affordable: •increase state investment in our public colleges; •increase efficiency in the delivery of instruction; •increase college credits earned in high school and decrease need for remediation in college; •increase competition from innovative public and private colleges.

The debate over a state law that would provide college tuition discounts to some illegal immigrants shifted to an Annapolis courtroom Friday. Attorneys for the law's supporters told an Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge that the Maryland Constitution bars a November referendum challenge. The law is about funding state government programs, and appropriations measures are not subject to referendum, they said. But those backing a petition drive calling for a referendum said the measure does not deal with funding.