Government says FAMU underfunded by $1.97B in 30 years

The U.S. Department of Education on Monday asked state officials to pump more funding into Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University, pointing to what the federal agency called a “long-standing and ongoing underinvestment” by the state.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona sent letters to Gov. Ron DeSantis and governors of 15 other states highlighting what Cardona characterized as funding disparities between historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, and their “non-HBCU land-grant peers” in the states. Florida A&M, commonly known as FAMU, is the only HBCU in Florida’s state university system. Cardona’s letter said that, over the last 30 years, FAMU has been shortchanged financially by $1.97 billion.

“These funds could have supported infrastructure and student services and would have better positioned the university to compete for research grants,” Cardona wrote. The federal education chief called on DeSantis to make a plan that could involve “a combination of a substantial state allocation” and “a forward-looking budget commitment for a two-to-one match of federal land-grant funding” to help bring funding parity between FAMU and other state universities.

A disparity in the allocation of state resources to FAMU compared to other state schools is the subject of an ongoing legal challenge. Attorneys for a group of FAMU students last year and in July filed a lawsuit alleging discrimination by the state.

A federal judge dismissed the potential class-action case but allowed the plaintiffs to file a revised version to address his concerns. In the revamped lawsuit filed in July, the plaintiffs contend that state practices involving FAMU violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and what is known as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.