Educators say bill is short of Black colleges’ needs

Biden had made pledge to support historic institutions

Leaders of historically Black colleges and universities say President Joe Biden’s budget package falls far short of how much the historically underfunded institutions need.

The aid, penciled in for $1.45 billion in the bill to be distributed over four years beginning in 2022, is much less than supporters anticipated.

It puts HBCUs at a disadvantage and risks Biden’s support from an important constituency.

And the final number for HBCUs could be even lower: The president’s original $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan is under intense negotiations in Congress, where key moderates want a more modest plan closer to $2 trillion.

“We were terribly supportive because no president has ever ... in the history of this nation, put these institutions so central to transformative change and investment,” Lodriguez Murray, a senior vice president for the United Negro College Fund.

But now, Murray says, the amount under consideration is far too small to affect that kind of change.

“For Congress to not follow through on (Biden’s) plan is earth-shattering for the institutions,” he said.

The presidents of the United Negro College Fund’s 37 member institutions sent a letter to congressional leaders Friday to urge Congress to pass the bill with more provisions for HBCUs.

For instance, the leaders want half of the money reserved for HBCUs and minority-serving institutions allocated exclusively to HBCUs.

“Although HBCUs generate a significant return on investment, they are historically underfunded, face discrimination with investments, and have tighter budgets based almost exclusively on tuition from underserved students,” the letter says.

‘Historically underfunded’

A combined $29.3 billion to reduce tuition costs and modernize institutional research facilities is also included in the bill, but HBCUs will have to compete against other minority-serving institutions, including those with Hispanic or Alaska Native students, for the funding.

“There is a massive disadvantage for HBCUs,” Walter Kimbrough, president of Dillard University in New Orleans said. “To qualify to be a Hispanic serving institution, 25% of your student body has to be (Hispanic.) As soon as you get to the 25% threshold, you then qualify for (the) money.”

“The University of Texas at Austin is now a Hispanic-serving institution. There’s no way in the world Dillard competes with UTA. They probably have a grant writing team that’s bigger than my academic departments,” he added.

Dillard enrolls just over 1,200 students, while 51,000 are enrolled at UT Austin.

Dr. Michael J. Sorrell, president of Paul Quinn College in Dallas, said competition isn’t unfair, but the rules should consider diverse needs.

“You have to compare apples to apples. And if you would like institutions that are smaller, private ... (that) are interested in developing their research footprint and making it broader, then you have to create inlets which the playing field is level.” Sorrell told USA TODAY.

Paul Quinn is the nation’s only urban Work College, where students participate in a work-learning program.

“That (budget) money would allow us to continue to expand that model, which is reducing student loan debt by tens of thousands of dollars,” Sorrell said.

Many of the 228,000 Black students who annually enroll in the country’s 107 HBCUs are from low-income households. The institutions earn less in tuition revenue and work with fewer financial resources because of who they serve, according to a report by The Brookings Institution.

But HBCUs confer about one in eight bachelor’s degrees earned by Black students and produce 42% of Black engineers and 80% of Black judges. Forty percent of Black members of Congress graduated from an HBCU, as did Vice President Kamala Harris.

Two of the institutions’ biggest advocates in the House, Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., and Rep. Alma Adams, D-N.C., said they remain committed.

Adams, an alumna of North Carolina A&T State University, threatened to vote no on the bill unless billions more are allocated. “We can’t build back better unless we build our HBCUs back better. Promises made must be promises kept,” Adams said, according to Punchbowl News.

Scott said: “Since I became Chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, Congress has delivered historic levels of funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

“The Build Back Better Act includes another significant investment in these critical institutions. I am committed to making sure that we continue investing in our HBCUs and their students.”