Black colleges fret over plan to aid students directly
President Barack Obama’s proposed education budget is worrying students and leaders at the city’s historically black colleges.
At issue: a federal program that provided an extra $85 million to black institutions for each of the past two years.
The new proposed budget would not continue that funding, shifting aid primarily to students instead of directly to the schools. Even with increases in other funding, historically black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, stand to lose $73 million in funding.
That’s money the schools said they can’t afford to lose.
“Any cut to the HBCU movement would really hurt, especially at this moment,” said Franklin McCain , chairman of N.C. A&T’s board of trustees. “Right now, in this economy, we’re struggling to do the little that we can do. We’re making cuts everywhere we can. To lose this funding as well would really end up hurting people.”
Officials at Bennett College , which has struggled with financial problems for years, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
A&T has had its own financial difficulties and, as a UNC system school, has seen deep cuts to its budget as the state’s financial crisis continues.
Education department officials said the two-year program was always meant to be temporary and that HBCUs shouldn’t have planned for it to go on forever. But McCain and other leaders said the funding was a good start at correcting the traditional underfunding with which black colleges have struggled for years.
“The truth is that more of our students come from meager backgrounds than majority or traditionally white colleges,” McCain said. “We don’t have the great number of alumni who can make contributions of a quarter million dollars up to five or six millions dollars. That government funding, that aid, is really essential to us continuing to give people a chance who might not otherwise have one.”
HBCUs make up 3 percent of all U.S. colleges, but they account for 20 percent of undergraduate degrees awarded to black students, according to the United Negro College Fund. Of the 105 federally recognized HBCUs, 10 are in North Carolina — five public and five private.
U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a Republican from Winston-Salem, called the proposed cuts to those schools “devastating.”
“This primary HBCU program provides the critical, foundational support necessary to ensure that HBCUs can best serve their students,” Burr said.
Cutting HBCU funding while continuing to fund things such as historic whaling museums calls the president’s priorities into question, Burr said.
Education department officials said they aren’t cutting funding so much as shifting it to support minority students rather than minority institutions.
They point to the maximum Pell Grant for low-income students going up by $200 to $5,550 .
That could help HBCUs very little, according to an Associated Press analysis. Even if all 132,000 HBCU students receiving Pell grants get the maximum $200 increase, historically black schools will see only about a third of the funding that would be cut from the new budget.
The Obama administration should be applauded for concentrating on student aid, but it shouldn’t forget direct aid to institutions, said Marcus Bass, president of A&T’s student government association.
“Anything you can do to help students afford school is a good thing,” Bass said. “But the institutions need to keep their doors open, need to invest in the future, need to continue to grow and become better in order for us to educate everyone who wants to go to college. That’s the mission.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian@news-record.com
Accompanying Photos
About the proposal
The Obama administration is proposing a budget that doesn’t renew a two-year program that provided $85 million in direct funding to HBCUs in each of the past two years.
The administration said the funding was temporary and wants to provide funding in other ways. Money will be provided directly to minority students rather than to the schools.
Even when offset by increases in other funding, the schools would essentially take a $73 million cut.
The schools' stance
The schools argue that with the economy in such bad shape, they can’t afford to lose this funding.
They argue point out that HBCUs make up only 3 percent of U.S. colleges but account for 20 percent of undergraduate degrees awarded to black students.
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