HBCUs have long been a key source of access to postsecondary education for African-American students. They also have served a significant proportion of first-generation students and those from low-income families who struggle to afford college—a growing segment of students in the United States for more than a century.
In recent years HBCUs have been battling strong headwinds. They are chronically underfunded compared to other institutions. With much smaller endowments than most private schools. And like many institutions, they are grappling with declining enrollments. Because the typical HBCU is relatively small, they often have little cushion to absorb decreased tuition revenue.
HBCUs, in recent years, have begun to receive a fair amount of attention and respect from policy makers at the national level. Democratic Presidential candidates in particular have been intensifying that focus as the come closer to the national elections.
Last December President Trump signed the Future Act, a rare triumph of congressional bipartisanship that permanently provides more than $250 million a year to the nation’s HBCUs along with many other institutions serving large numbers of minority students.
Each of the six leading candidates for the Democratic nomination for President has proposed investing more money in HBCUs along with plans for bolstering their mission.
Here’s a quick summary of their proposals:
Claiming that HBCUs have “always been the heartbeat of our country’s fight for justice,” Joe Biden promised that he would invest $70 billion in HBCUs and other minority serving institutions. He would also stimulate the formation of more HBCU research incubators.
Mike Bloomberg’s higher education plan includes several proposals for HBCUs. He would triple their direct Title III funding, fund infrastructure grants that would enable the schools to build and renovate their facilities, grow their capital financing capacity, beef up funding for HBCU medical schools, and improve their access to federal research funds and other federal grants.
Pete Buttigieg would increase dedicated resources by $50 billion to HBCUs and other minority serving institutions. According to what he calls his Douglass Plan, Buttigieg would reserve a portion of that money for a fund that would support, test, and scale promising practices to improve college completion at these institutions.
Amy Klobuchar postsecondary education plan includes improving the affordability of HBCUs via her “Pathways to Student Success” initiative. Federal funding would allow participating HBCUs to waive or significantly reduce the first two years of tuition for low-income students.