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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Trump administration boosts HBCU funding after cutting grants for | |
Hispanic-serving colleges | |
By Associated Press | |
Updated: | |
1:29 PM EDT, Mon September 15, 2025 | |
Source: AP | |
The Trump administration is redirecting nearly $500 million in federal | |
funding toward and tribal colleges, a one-time investment covered | |
primarily by cuts to other colleges serving large numbers of minority | |
students. | |
The Education Department announced the funding boost days after from | |
other grants, mostly from programs reserved for colleges that have | |
large numbers of Hispanic students. Agency leaders said those grants | |
were unconstitutional because they’re available only to colleges with | |
certain minority enrollment thresholds. | |
Education Secretary said the changes will redirect money away from | |
“from ineffective and discriminatory programs toward those which | |
support student success.” | |
“The Department has carefully scrutinized our federal grants, | |
ensuring that taxpayers are not funding racially discriminatory | |
programs but those programs which promote merit and excellence in | |
education,” McMahon said in a statement. | |
The department is also redirecting about $60 million toward funding for | |
charter schools and $137 million toward American history and civics | |
grants. President in January issued an ordering the agency to repurpose | |
federal money toward charter schools and other school choice | |
initiatives. | |
It amounts to a one-time federal funding boost of 48% increase for | |
HBCUs and it more than doubles funding for tribal colleges and | |
universities, the department said. | |
The department is flexing its power to repurpose discretionary funding | |
to match the president’s priorities — made possible through a | |
stopgap funding bill passed by Congress this year that gives the | |
executive branch more authority over spending decisions. | |
Trump has long called himself a champion of HBCUs. During his first | |
term, Congress for HBCUs. This year Trump signed an that pledges an | |
annual White House summit, an advisory board and other support for | |
HBCUs. | |
The Education Department said the money comes from programs found to be | |
“not in the best interest of students and families.” It previously | |
said the other minority-serving grants would be redirected to programs | |
that do not rely on racial quotas. | |
A person familiar with the decision said money is also being directed | |
away from programs that support gifted and talented programs, magnet | |
schools, international education and teacher training. Most of those | |
programs would be zeroed out in Trump’s 2026 budget request, said the | |
person, who was not authorized to discuss the decision and spoke on the | |
condition of anonymity. | |
Last week’s cuts to the the Hispanic Serving Institution program | |
reversed decades of precedent. Congress created the program in 1998 | |
after finding that Latino students were going to college and graduating | |
at far lower rates than white students. The department also cut several | |
smaller programs for colleges serving certain percentages of Asian | |
American, Black or Native American students. | |
The cuts drew swift blowback from Democrats, who said those programs | |
have long had bipartisan support and fueled social mobility for | |
working-class Americans. | |
A from the Justice Department argues that the Hispanic Serving | |
Institution grants are unconstitutional because they’re open only to | |
colleges where a quarter of undergraduates or more are Hispanic. The | |
department declined to defend the program in a suit brought by the | |
state of Tennessee and Students for Fair Admissions, an | |
anti-affirmative action group. | |
The lawsuit asks a federal judge to halt the grants. Tennessee argued | |
all of its public universities serve Hispanic students but none meet | |
the “arbitrary ethnic threshold” to be eligible for the funding. | |
Those schools miss out on tens of millions of dollars because of | |
discriminatory requirements, the suit said. | |
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