HIGHLIGHTS OF THE TAWES ADMINISTRATION

1963 -1967

Governor J. Millard Tawes did not decide to run for a second
term until late in November, 1961, only a few months before the
date of the primary election, and a main factor in his decision to
seek re-election was his feeling that he had only partially accomp-
lished the objectives he had established for his Administration.

Although substantial advances had been made in public education
during the first years of his term, teachers, school administrators and
others were dissatisfied with the effort the State was making. Yet to
be accomplished was a plan and program to meet the ever-increasing
enrollment demands in public higher education. The Governor had
appointed a commission to study higher education needs and recom-
mend a plan, but that commission had not yet made its report. The
construction of arterial highways moved ahead rapidly, but yet to
be completed were such thoroughfares as the Baltimore Belwtay, the
Capital Beltway and the Northeastern Expressway, later to be named
the John F. Kennedy Memorial Expressway.

After his re-election (again by substantial majorities in both the
primary and the general election), Governor Tawes moved promptly
to attain these and other goals he had set.

At the 1964 session, the General Assembly approved an Administra-
tion plan to increase the amount of state aid to education and to
revise the formula for its distribution, a move hailed by educators
as the greatest single educational achievement in Maryland in forty
years.

The commission studying higher education reported in June, 1962,
and at the regular session the following year the General Assembly
adopted the "tripartite system" of public higher education, the three
parts being: (1) the University of Maryland, with its main campus
in College Park, its branches and its professional schools in Baltimore,
as a "capstone" of the system; (2) a State College division, comprised
of Morgan State College and the teacher-training institutions which
were converted into full-fledged colleges of the arts and sciences, and,
(3) the community colleges, operated by local governments, with
liberal assistance from the State government.

The gigantic road building program continued, with expenditures
during the eight years of the Tawes Administration tripling that
of the previous eight years. With the roads built, under construction

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