While the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is felt throughout higher education, a report from the Center for American Progress (CAP) advocates that public colleges and universities deserve the largest allotment of aid to ensure that racial and economic inequalities don’t deepen.
The report “A Better Formula for Higher Education’s Federal Coronavirus Funding,” authored by Ben Miller, CAP vice president for postsecondary education, noted that public institutions of higher education serve a larger share of historically marginalized and underserved students.
State budget cuts have repeatedly impacted these colleges and universities in recent years. Miller wrote that if these institutions don’t receive the funding needed during this time of acute crisis, racial and economic inequities will intensify and students already struggling to access higher education may be unable to complete their educations. CAP’s position is that Congress should recognize that public higher education is the most important policy goal.
CAP and some of its partner organizations have called for a minimum of $46 billion more in spending for public institutions of higher education. Miller noted that Congress should also address who gets the funds and how those funds can be used.
“The initial CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act was a little bit narrow in its suggested use of the funds,” said Miller. “Congress would have to write new legislation that basically says the allowable uses for these funds include a wider range. Then probably have a clause at the end that says something like, ‘And other purposes the Secretary [of Education] may describe.’ So that it’s clear that it should not be limited to just what Congress spells out in law.”
Dr. Katherine S. Newman, interim chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston), said students at the majority-minority institution are truly suffering either due to illness in the family or job loss, and their ability to stay in school is going to be compromised. Receiving aid is critical and she agreed that more funding is needed.
UMass Boston opened its application process for CARES Act aid in the first week of May and has already received applications from more than 3,000 students. As much as 90% of the applicants are undergraduates and 10% are graduate students. Of the total applicants, about 24% are White, 24% Asian American, 24% African American, 20% Hispanic and 8% unknown ethnicity. Only about 18% were set to graduate this spring. With no guarantee of future aid, the university will not release the aid all at once, but rather distribute it in pieces through the summer and fall.
