Trump Shifts $435M to HBCUs As Other Minority-Serving Colleges Lose Funding

Alecia Taylor, CapitalB

The Department of Education announced the funding boost just days after cutting $350 million from other grants.

The Trump administration said it will redirect $435 million to historically Black colleges and universities and tribal campuses as it defunds grant programs for other minority students at other institutions.

On Monday, the Department of Education also announced it will invest more than $160 million in American history and civics education programs. The department said it also plans to award grants totaling $500 million for charter schools.

This week’s announcement comes less than a week after the department said it will end approximately $350 million in discretionary funding to several minority-serving institutions that “discriminate by conferring government benefits exclusively to institutions that meet racial or ethnic quotas.”

Among institutions defunded are Hispanic-serving institutions and predominantly Black institutions, which are different from HBCUs. HBCUs are colleges and universities founded before 1964 with the intention to serve Black communities. PBIs are campuses with about half the student body identifying as Black or African American, such as Chicago State University, Georgia State University, and the Community College of Philadelphia. 

Read about how organizations are reacting to this news.

Many HBCUs were established in response to segregation during the Jim Crow Era.

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