Bush’s HBCU Increase: Enough or Too Little?
By Charles Dervarics
With the House of Representatives and the Senate mired in a budget dispute, not even a simple resolution honoring Black colleges can get through without partisan differences.
While lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a recent resolution honoring HBCUs, Democrats used floor time before the vote to criticize Bush administration proposals that would limit to 3.6 percent next year’s funding increases for
HBCUs and other minority-serving colleges and universities.
“It is a small increase, but it is not an increase that keeps up with inflation,” says Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J. “We must go beyond empty words of praise,” he added, referring to the HBCU resolution that passed in the House. Holt also called for more action to increase funding for Pell Grants, where the top grant would remain at $4,000 under the administration’s plan.
