Mote warns about impact of funding problems

(Left to right) Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) and President Dan Mote

University of Maryland President Dan Mote warned an audience of higher education and government officials Tuesday that the quality of higher education in the U.S. could suffer if federal and state governments and universities don't work together to solve current funding problems. Appearing on a panel sponsored by Atlantic Monthly magazine and Honda Corporation, Mote said the U.S. higher education system is still the "envy of the world" and "the most successful enterprise of the last 50 years," but decreasing funding and increasing student debt could begin to erode the quality that American families have been demanding in their universities.

Also on the panel at the National Press Club were Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Calif.), Deputy Secretary of Education Gene Hickok and New America Foundation Fellow Jennifer Washburn. The panel was convened to examine the question of why tuition costs are rising so much, but the panelists covered a wide range of higher education topics, including reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

McKeon, one of the authors of the reauthorization and a proponent of capping tuition, said parents and students need better information about college costs, and Hickok argued that parents should direct their children toward community colleges and other lower cost alternatives to universities.

Mote noted that the proportion of university budgets coming from the states has been steadily declining in recent years, but the number of students and the expectations of state government and other stakeholders continue to grow rapidly.

Mote said higher education is the only service in the U.S. for which the expectation of quality does not span a range from low to high. People will accept low cost low quality hotels, automobiles and other services, but they are only interested in high quality higher education, and they have shown a willingness to pay for it through high tuition, even being willing to borrow heavily to attain it.

But as the debt burden on students and families grows, Mote warned, some colleges and universities will manage costs by reducing quality or by pricing themselves to a wealthy market.

Mote noted that the University of Maryland has established the Maryland Pathways Program to encourage access for low-income students by providing a combination of financial aid programs that ensure the poorest students can graduate debt free.