The Olympian: ‘HBCUs survived’ in Biden Spending Bill
Historically Black colleges now poised to receive $3 billion in Biden's Build Back Better spending bill
From The Olympian …
Historically Black Colleges and Universities are poised to receive an estimated $3 billion or more in federal funding as part of a spending deal the White House reached with members of Congress, HBCU advocates say.
The amount was less than President Joe Biden had sought, but HBCU advocacy groups expressed relief that it was more than what they were bracing for in the legislation that did not include other parts of the president’s domestic agenda.
“Free community college is gone. Family paid leave is gone. And HBCUs survived,” said Victor Santos, director of government relations for the HBCU advocacy group Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
The HBCU funding was part of a total of about $10 billion in the legislation slated for institutions that serve minorities, which also include tribal colleges and universities and schools with large Hispanic student populations. President Joe Biden had initially wanted to provide minority-serving institutions and their students with more than $90 billion in benefits in his jobs and families plans.
“There’s a lot more work to do over the next three years to help the president bring his promises to bear, but this a very strong start,” said Lodriguez Murray, senior vice president of public policy and government affairs at the United Negro College Fund.
HBCU advocacy groups argued that the current proposal is significantly better than an earlier version of the House bill which gave minority institutions roughly $2 billion to share and made them compete for grants against larger educational institutions, which was met with fierce opposition by the groups.