Why is Trump biting Obama’s HBCU plan?

If you were wondering when Donald Trump would get around to saying something about HBCUs, your wait is over. He recently released an executive order that, in his mind, bolsters Black colleges (since he thinks he can be Pope, does this order make him think he’s Booker T. Washington?).

According to the White House, Trump’s executive order, signed April 23, creates a White House Initiative on HBCUs, in his words, “to enhance HBCUs’ capacity to deliver high-quality education to a growing number of students.” It claims to encourage partnerships with the private sector, and workforce preparation in fields like technology, healthcare, manufacturing, and finance. A component of the initiative will be the HBCU Partners Act, aimed at improving the schools and creating a path for new students and retention. It is also supposed to address federal funding barriers and convene an annual White House HBCU Summit.

Now, it’s all pretty language until you look up President Barack Obama’s 2010 executive order, which pretty much did the same thing. It had already established a White House Initiative on HBCUs, fostered private sector partnerships, created a funding pipeline for Black colleges, and established a President’s Board of Advisors on HBCUs. Also, instead of an annual summit at the White House, in 2012, the Obama campaign, in conjunction with the Democratic Party, established an HBCU summit that took place on actual Black college campuses. 

The difference is that Obama let his initiative be housed and managed in the Department of Education. Millions of dollars earmarked for HBCUs were channeled through the agency for strengthening the schools, capital financing, funds for enhancing the science and technology workforce through the National Science Foundation, and many other assets. Trump, however, has made it a priority to dismantle the Department of Education and has directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to lead it to eventual shutdown, although the agency can only be eliminated through an act of Congress.

The president’s aim is to direct his initiative through the White House so that he has direct control of it. He also made this effort in a similar proclamation in 2017, shortly after he took office the first time. Like Obama’s initiative, it is to be led by an executive director who will be responsible for its oversight. During his first term, Trump also boasted of signing a bipartisan bill that restored $250 million for HBCUs, but Obama’s program gave about $286 million to the schools, plus $900 million in Pell Grants to Black colleges. Currently, there is a Republican bill going through Congress that would reduce undergraduate eligibility for Pell Grants.

Meanwhile, as Trump touts himself as an HBCU savior while essentially repeating what was already done, many schools find themselves at fiscal risk because of cuts in federal funding for higher education. Although the administration rescinded an executive order to pause Pell Grants and other loans, which could have harmed HBCU student finances, some federal grants have still been quashed because they do not comply with Trump’s anti-DEI requirements.

Morgan State University, for example, prepared last month to tour K-12 students interested in STEM careers through funds given by the U.S. Navy, but it was canceled because the DOD terminated the contract as a result of Trump’s agenda against diversity. Morgan president David K. Wilson, however, found the money himself, and the students came after all.

“I just decided that this had to happen,” Wilson said, according to HBCUNews.com. “There was no way on God’s green earth that Morgan State University was going to deny these inquiring minds, these future innovators, possibly future engineers, an opportunity to find out what those disciplines were all about.”

Threats to HBCUs have been the subject of a lot of writing in the past few weeks, particularly how they relate to Black men attending colleges. Many statistics show a significant drop in Black men at HBCUs, just as the numbers reflect an overall decrease in men attending American universities. 

In the excerpt below, I reflect on my own experience in school, which could have prevented me from going to college.

We’re Having the Wrong Conversation About Black Men and College…Again

In fourth grade, I ran for class president and won. After a rousing campaign speech to my classmates, I had earned their votes. Even the girl I defeated congratulated me. But my teacher, Mrs. Richards, had other ideas.

She called the girl to her desk and told her she would be class president. I was crushed. When I asked Mrs. Richards why I couldn’t be class president, she snapped, TAKE YOUR SEAT! That’s the last I would hear from her about it. I never told my mother about this and other incidents because I feared she would take the teacher’s side, and other kids felt the same in dealing with their moms. Thus, humiliation from this teacher for the other Black boys (and some girls, if we’re being honest) was commonplace.

A couple of years later, I was with my mother in a mall when we ran into Mrs. Richards, who recognized me. She said she remembered how well I read and what a good student I was. My mother thanked her for the compliment. As we walked away, I quickly dried the tears in my eyes, remembering the sting of her treatment and how I hated that chain-smoking, barrel-shaped ogress.

By this time, though, I was in sixth grade and an awful student. I was doing poorly in several subjects, with the exception of gym. I looked at school as a daylong prison for kids where I was subject to spiteful teachers, bullies, and chipping lead paint. This was the result of years of teachers who made me feel inadequate, despite my gifts, rather than understand their own incompetence.

What threw me back to my wayward days of being the short kid in class, trying to figure out my place in the world, is the current discussion about Black men and our presence, or lack thereof, on college campuses.

For the full story, and what wound up happening to me, hit me up at StarkRavingMadison.com.