According to Maryland standards, we did very well in our capital budget with all of our projects being funded including the projects that were deferred in the 2002 session. However, the state's commitment is only about $48 million a year with the local counties picking up the rest.  Our tuition levels are rising on the average of about 5 percent and now stand around $85 per credit.

Moving on to other issues, we were remarkably successful during the legislative session with our "Fairness in Financial Aid" Bill which passed and was signed by the Governor, fundamentally changing Maryland's financial aid system. The legislation funded a decentralized campus-based Educational Assistance Grant (EAG) Program and allocates these funds to the higher education institutions based on the number of full-time Pell eligible students (which greatly favor community colleges).

The current system was established decades ago and based on a model that assumed students were seeking admittance to four-year schools and residing on-campus resulting in community college students making up approximately 50% of those eligible but were receiving only 8% of the awards. The inequity was due primarily to the March 1st deadline of the old EAG program which discriminated against community colleges, many of whom are first generation students, because they make decisions about college attendance at a much later time. The new decentralized program does not require in March 1st application deadline.

We still have an issue with the state formula for determining grant eligibility and the true educational costs of commuter students. While residential colleges may submit their actual room and board student budgets to the state for use in the eligibility formula, commuter schools have been limited to a minimal living expense allowance that has not changed in ten years.

The "Immigrant Opportunity Bill" would have provide in-state tuition rates to students who move to Maryland as children, provided that these students must have attended a Maryland high school and resided in Maryland for at least three years. They must also sign an affidavit stating they will file their papers to change their legal status within 30 days of eligibility (currently age 21). With our help, the bill passed overwhelmingly in both the House and Senate but was vetoed by the governor.

In the area producing more K-12 teachers, Maryland has been at the forefront of developing the Associate of Arts Degree in Teaching (AAT) Degree. Maryland's community colleges believe that in a state whose citizenry is among the most highly educated in the country, it is inconceivable that we continue to import 3800 teachers to year to teach our children because we don't educated enough of our own. By 2003, 14 of our 16 community colleges began delivering elementary AAT's.

At the two-year colleges, the curriculum was changed, the way our faculty did business was changed, and the culture was changed. We transformed a system with a plethora of outdated articulation agreements into a single, agreed-upon, set of outcomes that represents the first two years of a teaching degree. Then reality set in. As some of you know who have pursued this avenue, there is "culture shock" when dealing with a four-year universities. As one finds out very quickly, the curriculum is controlled by the faculty and only the faculty at a four-year institution. We had two major problems. First, numerous receiving four-year colleges were not prepared to accept the total AAT package.

There was still a tendency to review transcripts on a course by course basis thus negating the entire purpose of an AAT experience. Secondly, once the students completed the AAT Degree, would there be room at the University to accept these transfer students given that the University was cutting back on enrollments?  It did take a bill in the legislature to force the four-year universities to negotiate with the community colleges in good faith over these issues.

To avoid moving this bill forward in the legislature, the Chancellor of the University System and I agreed to set up a committee that would agree upon the number of slots reserved for AAT graduates on a college by college basis. Moreover, we agreed upon the parameters to creating the Secondary AAT Degree which is infinitely more complicated because it in involves the disciplines at the four-year colleges i.e. Chemistry, Math, Physics, etc. As we speak, we have created a Secondary AAT Oversight Council to facilitate agreements among the two-year and four-year faculty on outcomes in each discipline. It seems to be working well at solving the problems associated with a Secondary Degree. We continue to believe that the Legislature intended that the AAT degree be simple and straightforward----- the first two years done at the community colleges and the last two years done at a four-year institution with courses transferring and duplication eliminated.

Given that Maryland is expected to have structural budget deficits for some time, the other big issue the Maryland Association of Community Colleges is wrestling with is whether to pass a resolution on urging the state to enact revenue enhancements agreed upon by the governor in the legislature. This is somewhat controversial since a compromise solution on revenue enhancements may include the legalization of slot machines.

Anthony Kinkel, Executive Director