Maryland Higher Education Goes to Trial

A bench trial in The Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education vs. Maryland’s Higher Education Commission kicked off on January 3 in the Baltimore district court.

Coalition for Equity and Excellence is a Title VI and Equal Protection lawsuit alleging that “separate and unequal” persists in Maryland’s higher education system – and specifically that the state has failed to sufficiently fund and support Maryland’s historically black institutions (HCBU’s) to offer educational experiences equivalent to the state’s traditionally white institutions. The plaintiffs are asking the court to order changes in funding guidelines, reallocation of resources, and sufficient support to ensure parity in educational opportunities.

The Maryland state college system includes four HBCU’s – Morgan State, Coppin State, Bowie State, and University of Maryland Eastern Shore. The Maryland HBCU’s were established when the state university system was segregated. Today, their student bodies are still majority African-American.  Morgan State, located in Baltimore, is experiencing serious physical plant issues.  And Coppin State, also located in Baltimore, has the lowest graduation rate in the Maryland higher education system – recently increased from 13% to 15%.

The foundational civil rights cases in higher education (Sweatt v. Painter, McLaurin v. Oklahoma) date back even before Brown. But the issues surrounding the Maryland HBCU trial are very contemporary. For example, the case comes at a time when recent college graduates face a high unemployment rate and fierce competition for jobs – but also a time when state governments, including Maryland, are strapped for cash. Plus, the connection between funding levels and quality of public secondary schools serving minority students continues to be a key issue in education. Financing for state higher education is closely related – colleges with a large proportion of students who graduate from low performing public schools must devote more resources to support and remediation. And, the case goes to trial during a presidential administration which, by many accounts, has strengthened federal enforcement of civil rights (That is significant because a key issue of contention in the Maryland HBCU case is the parties’ disagreement as to whether Maryland complied with a 2000 agreement with the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education.).

I’ll report back later on trial developments and the eventual outcome of the case (I think settlement before the verdict could still happen.).