terrapinsanity.com

An unfolding story, many years in the making, will reach a key point today as plaintiffs in a desegregation case will get their day in court. Four historically black universities, together with alumni, argue that the state of Maryland has not done enough to desegregate their campuses.

Morgan State University, Coppin State University, Bowie State University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore will argue many points, but among them is the claim that by allowing duplicate programs between their campuses and others in the state, Maryland has run a de facto ‘separate and unequal’ system which kept students away from their programs. A presumption one might make from this is that they would seek injunctive relief so that overlapping programs are merged by relocating the resources to just one or the other campus (presumably theirs.) They have argued that in specific cases in the past (as we have reported). Nevertheless, they have a different goal in this case: cash.

Plaintiffs aren’t asking for policy change that might affect opportunity to excel. They just want cash. Lots of it. Price tag if they get what they ask? $2 billion. Just like the famous Thornton plan channeled a couple billion tax dollars into Maryland high schools as salve some perceived inequity but with no connection to quality or outcomes, the colleges just want payola. Apparently they think equity means getting a big piece of the taxpayer take. So far, nobody has made any connection between a cash payout and some objective outcome like improved standards of excellence or more students competing for a seat in those classrooms.

Many of the MHEC moves in recent years have been nuanced by an awareness of how things might play to a judge – sort of the elephant in the room of which people do not talk in mixed company – and we’ll soon see how those decisions have played out.