Gov. Larry Hogan said he is open to spending as much as $100 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a coalition of historically black colleges in Maryland, signaling his desire to end a legal battle that has dragged on for more than a decade.
In a letter to Del. Cheryl D. Glenn, chair of the state’s legislative black caucus, the governor’s chief legal counsel, Robert Scholz, said Hogan is willing to discuss using those funds to supplement the state’s support for HBCUs over a 10-year period.
“It represents a serious, multi-year commitment which we believe goes well beyond what the law requires,” Scholz wrote in the letter dated Wednesday.
A coalition of Maryland’s four HBCUs — Morgan State, Coppin State, Bowie State and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore — filed a suit in 2006, contending that Maryland had long fostered segregation in higher education by allowing well-funded academic programs at traditionally white universities to undermine similar ones at historically black schools.
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