terrapinsanity.com

The Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) has affirmed a ruling that no Marylander should be able to study for a degree in community college administration unless it is done at a historically black college.

Unable to compete in a free and open marketplace of ideas and services, Morgan State University argued civil rights violations in getting MHEC to agree to artificially boost demand for the HBC’s degrees by proscribing UM University College from supplying its own degree to Maryland residents. (See Sun for their reporting on this topic.)

UMUC, with its growing portfolio of on-line degree plans, will perversely be able offer the degree in administration to anyone except Maryland residents, who apparently (at least to MHEC) will be better served by being forced to burn fossil fuel and travel in person to get the degree from Morgan.

As reported widely, the case gets national attention not only because it highlights growing discord between traditional and on-line degree programs, but also because of the important economic considerations specific to this degree area. Forcing prospective students in the field of community college administration to Morgan will have a limiting effect – there is only so far that many students are willing or able to commute. This limitation on supply of grads with such a degree will artificially support in-state demand for community college administrators, and moreover ensure that a greater proportion of people working in that field will have been racially acculturated at an HBC.

In other words, it is all about promoting select views on race at campuses across the state.

And that’s wrong.