The ink had hardly dried on Trump’s executive order promising continued support for HBCUs when he dropped his “skinny budget” in March. Those paying attention to its fine print, i.e., 1.5 pages on education, noticed Trump’s true intentions for public education, especially minority-serving institutions (MSIs). Trump proposes a 13 percent decline in funding to the U.S. Department of Education, with higher education programs comprising most of what will be sliced.
Trump’s “budget blueprint” is lawnmower budget cutting disguised as meticulous evidence-based policymaking. It eviscerates funding primarily to college-access programs because these programs have not proven their effectiveness. Those standing to lose most — unsurprising given the winners and losers according to the current administration’s policies — are low-income students, first-generation students and students of color.
Though the skinny budget is lean on details, cuts to specific programs are clear:
As the quotes in the above list indicate, Trump’s proposal repeatedly alludes to the demonstrated ineffectiveness of these higher education access programs. As New America highlighted, TRIO programs and GEAR UP have been the focus of few empirical studies. Those that have been conducted are out of date or yielded inconclusive results, though some TRIO programs have been evaluated and found to have a positive impact.
More evaluations of specific programs are needed and budgeting considerations should be based on their results. In the absence of such rigorous assessments, scores of students will be affected by cuts to these programs. New America reports that 71 percent of undergraduate students from families earning under $30,000 annually and 76 percent of independent recipients from families earning under of $20,000 annually benefit from SEOG.
According to a letter from UNCF President Michael L. Lomax to Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, eliminating the SEOG would affect more than 55,000 HBCU students. Reducing funding for work-study would affect 26,000 HBCU students. Evidence-based research has proven the effectiveness of work-study in advancing students toward obtaining bachelor’s degrees.
