Gov. Moore responds to calls to reverse budget cuts for community colleges

MARYLAND – Governor Wes Moore is responding to calls from community colleges across the state to reverse a dropping of the full CADE funding level for universities as part of his latest proposed budget.

For community colleges like WorWic, the cuts would see over 1.5 million dollars taken out of their operating budget compared to the previous year, which their president says can only result in a reduction of staff, and services, or passing the costs on to students.

However, Governor Moore says that the current funding level still represents a boost compared to 2021, saying that the state no longer has the COVID-19 Federal Relief dollars and is funding it purely with state revenue.

“Community colleges are going to play an incredibly important role in terms of both educational development and also community development. You know, and as a person who’s a graduate of a two-year college myself, you know, you’re not going to find a greater champion for or for our chair colleges and for our community colleges,” Governor Moore said adding “I also know that we have when you look at the budget that we have proposed, our budget is proposing over $350 million going towards our community colleges, which, by the way, is over $120 million, over $100 million more than what we had pre-COVID. And so we know that in a time of budget constraints, we have to invest in our community colleges.”

The Governor did not indicate a willingness to restore the universities to the full CADE funding level, which Wor-Wic had for the first time in its history for 2023 and 2024.