President Joe Biden is launching an unprecedented attack on black colleges – exposing that the Democrats truly don’t care for the black community.
While President Trump made strides in securing funding for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), the Biden admin’s newest multi-trillion dollar spending plan looks to cut funding for the universities – down from $45 billion to only $2 billion.
The whopping funding cuts are reportedly a result of Democrat infighting according to the Associated Press.
The $3.5 trillion bill was set to include $45 billion for HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions, but the newest iteration of the bill allots only $2 billion for educational programs and infrastructure of HBCUs. That amount could even be reduced to competitive grant funding, instead of direct funding to the schools.
Harry L. Williams, president of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which represents public HBCUs, stressed the importance of the funding, and the needs the original funding could have helped fulfill. He said Black colleges have unique history, needs and financial challenges.
They often struggle with funding for upgrading their campuses, updating their research programs, providing essential materials, hiring teachers and attracting new potential students.
AP reported that the bill was changed because of Democratic bickering over the size of the funding package, and where the funding would go.
Democratic Representative Bobby Scott of Virginia, who leads the U.S. House education committee, said historically Black colleges have received unprecedented levels of federal funding over the past two years, more than they have in the past decade combined. That includes $1.6 billion under the Democrats’ American Rescue Plan passed earlier this year.
The AP analysis of enrollment and endowment data found wide disparities among the 102 historically Black colleges and universities, and a further divide between private and public institutions.
Federal data, for example, showed that 11 HBCUs had endowments worth less than $1,000 per pupil in the 2018-19 school year while nine had endowments worth more than $50,000 per pupil.
In general, Black colleges have lacked the fundraising ability of other universities. The cumulative endowment for all historical Black colleges through 2019 was a little more than $3.9 billion, about the same as the endowment for just the University of Minnesota.
Advocates said the funding struggles and the role the colleges have played historically is why long-term federal assistance is needed.
Kevin Cosby, president of Simmons College of Kentucky in Louisville, agrees.
“To mix them with minority-serving institutions, which are are not historic institutions that do not have the legacy of historic discrimination, is not right,” he said. “Historically Black colleges and universities should be separated as a protected class of institutions because, like the Black community, our experience in the United States of America is a unique experience.”
Because of historical underfunding, Black colleges often have built up years of deferred maintenance, leaving buildings out of compliance with local codes or otherwise unable to accommodate students.
Money from endowment returns is directed to annual operating costs, making it harder to invest in new programs and buildings—a “number one issue” for attracting students, Cosby said.
The move by Democrats to cut the funding for black universities is one the mainstream media will likely try to bury. If such an effort had occurred while President Trump was in office, he and his administration would have been slammed by liberals as racists and the media would have blasted it in every headline imaginable.
One thing remains clear, the Democratic party is solely motivated by their quest for power, and anything that doesn’t aid them in that – such as helping Black Americans have access to a high quality higher education – will likely not be included in their radical plans.
Author: Jackson Warren
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