“For nearly 200 years, HBCUs have been engines of opportunity in communities, advancing critical innovations and uplifting local industries across the nation,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a Sept. 22 statement. “This new investment will help ensure these vital institutions have the resources they need to continue delivering world-class education and to prepare students for success in a rapidly evolving economy.”
Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said HBCUs “remain central to our nation’s higher education ecosystem, fueling workforce development, driving economic growth in their communities, and cultivating leaders across sectors including STEM, education, public service, and business.”
The Trump Administration will also award more than $61 million in additional funding for Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities, the department said.
Leaders of organizations that represent the recipient institutions expressed gratitude to the Trump administration for the investments.
Dr. Harry L. Williams, president and CEO of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, an organization that represents publicly supported HBCUs, lauded the federal investment in HBCUs, saying it builds on the supplemental amount of $435 million allocated in fiscal 2025.
“We applaud the Trump administration for doubling down on their investments into HBCUs as we build the workforce and develop the leaders that will solidify our nation’s global competitiveness for decades to come,” Williams said in a statement.
The funding comes roughly a year after the department announced that it was cancelling about $350 million in discretionary funds to several Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI) grant programs that the department deemed as discriminatory. The funding for the HBCU and Tribal Colleges comes from a grant program originally meant to help Hispanic-serving institutions to increase the number of Hispanic and low-income students in STEM fields, the Education Department told Inside Higher Ed.
“We don’t advocate to take money away from anyone else,” Moriah O’Brien, vice president of congressional and federal relations at the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, told Inside Higher Ed. At the same time, O’Brien expressed gratitude for the funding, saying it was crucial to campus infrastructure and other areas where resources are constrained.
Jamaal Abdul-Alim is a longtime education writer who resides in Washington, D.C. He occasionally teaches journalism and has completed fellowships at the University of Michigan, Columbia University and New America.
