MICUA

MICUA Matters

Spring 2011

We live in a very different world than the one we inherited from our parents and grandparents. Technology and innovation are changing every aspect of our lives, revolutionizing the way we work, the way we interact, the way we learn, and the way we heal the world around us. Times are changing and as we make the turn into the new economy—an economy built on the clean-tech, green-tech, high-tech jobs of tomorrow—states must adapt to win. Innovation is the key and the foundation of innovation is education.

Here in Maryland, if we are going to win in this new economy, every segment of our higher education system must work together. If we are going to continue to have one of the country’s most educated and highly skilled workforces, our public and private institutions must share the same goals and priorities. We are partners in the fight for our children’s future and in the vision we all share to create a stronger, smarter Maryland for future generations.

To expand opportunity to more people rather than fewer, we made the tough choices in tough times to keep college affordable for working families. Alone among the 50 states, we chose to freeze in-state tuition at our public colleges and universities for four years in a row. And for our private colleges and universities, we are fighting to continue our investments in the Sellinger Program, proposing to maintain the same level of funding as the previous fiscal year. As we face the reality of a $1.4 billion gap between expenditures and our recession-battered revenues, the best option for our most important priorities is to defend them by level-funding them.

Making college more affordable is only one battle in the fight to win the future. We must also ensure our students have the tools and resources they need to succeed once they get in the door. We are working together to develop curriculum and assessments based on the Common Core standards to better prepare students for college. And we are partnering with our higher education institutions to provide our students with the critical thinking skills and support they need to earn a degree in a timely manner. Recognizing the importance of college completion to our overarching goals, we have set a goal that by 2025 at least 55% of the State’s residents age 25-64 will hold at least one postsecondary degree.

MICUA institutions are already at the cutting edge of innovation as we continue to move Maryland forward into the new economy. Last fall, John Hopkins University attracted a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to support graduate students in an innovative special education leadership program. For the past decade, U.S. News and World Report has named Loyola University Maryland one of the region’s Top Ten institutions. Washington College has been recognized by The Princeton Review as one of the best Mid-Atlantic colleges.

The choices we are making today will allow us to provide our students with the foundation they need to succeed and win. As President Obama recently said, “We know what it takes to compete for the jobs and industries of our time. We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.” Here in Maryland, working together with our public and private universities, we are leading the way as we turn the corner into the new Innovation Economy.