Minority-serving colleges and universities would lose some of last year’s hard-fought funding gains under President Bush’s proposed education budget plan for next year.
The $301-trillion budget would cut funding for historically Black colleges and universities by $85 million, wiping out most of the extra funds Congress approved for these programs last year. To help low-income and at-risk students, lawmakers in 2007 endorsed and President Bush signed the College Cost Reduction Act (CCRA) with a permanent increase in Pell Grants and $500 million in supplementary funding for minority-serving colleges and universities.
But the president’s budget blueprint released Monday would remove any net increase for HBCUs in 2009. It would add in $85 million guaranteed through CCRA but reduce the program’s regular appropriation from $238 million to $153 million. Funding for HBCU graduate institutions would remain unchanged at $57 million.
For Hispanic-serving institutions, the bill would make a smaller cut of $19 million. “We were shocked and very disappointed,” said Antonio Flores, president of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.
Flores noted that the federal program for HSIs has sustained cuts or freezes for several years prior to CCRA’s enactment, despite steady enrollment growth.
“I thought that the last year of his presidency, he would compensate for what he hasn’t done in the last seven years,” Flores said.
The plan also drew criticism on Capitol Hill. “Once again, the president has proposed a budget that shortchanges our nation’s Hispanic-serving institutions and the students they serve,” said Rep. Rubén Hinojosa, D-Tex., chairman of the House higher education subcommittee.
