Obama Gives Billions to HBCU Colleges

Apr 9, 2010
Jennifer Ciotta

Minority Scholarships for HBCU Colleges - Tina Philips / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

With the signing of the Education Reconciliation Act, learn how much Obama set aside for historically black colleges and universities.

The Education Reconciliation Act was signed in March 2010. However, many people do not know about it because it was signed under the shadow of the Healthcare Reform Bill. With the passage of this new act came many new provisions for education. One in particular is set to help African American students.

College Financial Aid & Black Scholarships

Traditionally HBCUs, or Historically Black Colleges and Universities, have upheld great education and cultural traditions in the US. For example, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. graduated from an HBCU, Morehouse College, and countless other famous African Americans have done so as well. The list of exceptional HBCUs continues on with Spelman College, Claflin, Fisk, Howard, Dillard and Gannon – just to name a few.

These colleges range in regard to endowment amounts. Spelman comes in at number one for HBCU endowment with $141 million [source: spelman.edu]. However, this doesn't compare to other mainstream private universities with endowments in the range of Harvard at $26 billion or Penn State University at $1.6 billion. Thus, Obama and the Congressional Black Caucus decided to allocate a sizable amount of money toward HBCUs in the Education Reconciliation Act.

Scholarships for Black Students & Free Money for College

In fact, out of the many provisions that were shot down in the new act, funding HBCUs remained untouched. According to The New York Times article "Student Loan Overhaul Approved by Congress" (March 25, 2010), writers David M. Herszenhorn and Tamar Lewin report, "Untouched was the $2.55 billion to historically black and minority-serving colleges, a priority of the Congressional Black Caucus."

This was a giant feat for HBCUs to receive $2.55 billion, since Obama and Congress understood the financial need to allocate funds toward black students. This comes as a welcome second funding opportunity, since earlier this year, Obama donated $125,000 to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF).

As Dr. Michael L. Lomax, president and CEO of UNCF said, "We are grateful that President Obama has seen fit to use the proceeds from his Nobel Prize to help seniors at UNCF member colleges and universities complete their studies and graduate on time" [source: uncf.org].

Due to both generous allocations of money, the future of black education in the US is looking up. More African Americans will be able to obtain Bachelor degrees and graduate on time and with less debt.