All other Americans have access to research institutions in their states that are partially funded with federal tax dollars. DC has the highest per capital federal tax contribution in the country and pays more than it receives in federal funding. IOW, DC is a maker state not a taker state. |
Not without being a state, it cannot. |
It is prohibited by the Home Rule Act. I've lived here for many years, that DC Tag was not increasing and that neighboring jurisdictions offered more public higher ed options has not been unknown. Plan accordingly. |
It's federally funded, not a DC Council program. https://osse.dc.gov/dctag#Background It hasn't increased in a very long time, not sure expecting that is reasonable. Plan accordingly. |
Thanks for the clarification |
But DC should invest more in higher ed. In MD or VA my tax dollars would get me access to a range of more affordable colleges. |
I don't want to be snarky, but DC is a federal District. We do not have the funds or people to support that. We don't have economies of scale. |
You are what's wrong with America. |
Would be interesting to see how UMBC grew. Was it by just an increase in state expenditures, or by attracting research funding, donations and tuition? |
Maybe you should live there. |
Is that what DC wants? I feel more for the middle/lower class kids who could go to say Towson, but have to pay 7k extra annually in tuition. |
Virginia has 8.6 million residents, which is more than 10 times D.C.'s population. Maryland has 6.2 million. For D.C. to have even just one campus that's even just the same size as the UMD or UVA flagships, let alone on the same level of quality, would require raising taxes significantly on the residents we have. UDC does now have a community college branch that's similar in affordability to Montgomery College or Nova Community College, though. |
Perhaps it is similar in affordability, but not in quality. MoCo College and NVCC are among the best community colleges in the country. DC's is among the worst. |
DC should retrocede to Maryland. The only "losers" from such a plan would be the losers who currently sit astride the DC political scene: they mayor and council members who have dreams of becoming a "state" governor and legislators. |
Counterpoint: Vermont, Wyoming, Alaska, the Dakotas all have population sizes not too different from DC and support state research universities. Vermont even has a flagship that attracts many DMV area students. Even Delaware at 1 mil people is within the range of DC and has a strong state university. |