Congress To Black Colleges: $264 Million?

Bailey, Chauncey
Sun Reporter, The
03-14-2002
The Bush administration is proposing $264 million for historically Black
colleges for fiscal year 2003 -- a $9 million increase from this year --
The Sun Reporter has learned.

That may sound like a lot of cash. But Blacks in Congress are upset.

The $9 million boost, they say, amounts to only a 3.5 percent increase --
the smallest hike in seven years.

"Everyone wants to help Black colleges. But the issue is how much help,"
said one Black congressional aide.

Meanwhile, Black students at Black colleges are still struggling.

Shirley Lewis, president, Paine College in Augusta, Ga., said nearly every
student at the college is working or has taken out loans. "Many will be
graduating with $20,000 in debt," she said.

According to the American Council on Education, the typical American
college student in 1999 had a debt of $15.375 after graduating from a
public college and $17,250 in bills from a private institution.

"This is one reason why so few Blacks are going to college," said one Black
professor. "Black students say they may not get a good job and they will
also have to pay back a lot of loans. It's not worth the risk."

Currently, about 30 percent of whites have college degrees compared with 15
percent of Blacks.

The San Francisco Bay Area is only second behind Washington, D.C. in terms
of members of the labor force with college degrees.

Meanwhile, according to a study in the year 2000 by the National
Association for Equal Opportunity In Higher Education, three of every four
students at Black colleges do not own computers and only 3 percent of Black
colleges offered students financial assistance to getting a laptop or a
personal computer.

This week, the United Negro College Fund sent out letters to Blacks urging
them to send donations to Black private colleges. Meanwhile, actor Danny
Glover is pressing Blacks to send checks to the Thurgood Marshall Fund that
only helps public Black colleges. Now, college presidents are worried that
word about "more federal aid" may lessen giving by Blacks. The battle for
dollars between public and private Black colleges has been intense yet
low-key. Promoters do not want to seem to be at war. Public Black colleges
have pursued Black professional athletes, especially basketball players, to
support the Marshall Fund because the UNCF has a higher profile fundraiser:
annual televised telethons that feature Blacks in entertainment and big
checks from corporations seeking to score public relations points in the
Black community.

U.S. Senator Max Cleveland of Georgia said he wants to see $250 million
used to "bridge" the gap between Black and other minority schools who lag
behind major universities in "technological training." The new federal
grants would allow Black colleges to get equipment, go on the Internet and
train students.

"The lack of modern, available computer technology affects the ability of
Black colleges to be competitive with other schools of higher learning in
the information age," summed Louis Sullivan, president, Morehouse School of
Medicine.

"The `digital divide' threatens to deny Black students and our professors
and our colleges with the skills they need to overcome the remaining
vestiges imposed by race and economic segregation in America," added
William Gray, III, president, UNCF. Historically Black colleges, founded
before 1964, have mostly educated Blacks but now more whites are enrolling
because of lower tuitions.

"Black people are getting poorer, not richer in this country and we need a
strong financial aid program," said Fredrick Humphries, who left his job as
president of Florida A&M last year to become director of the National
Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education.

In Oakland, Brenda Knight, a trustee at the Peralta Community College
District, which serves many Black students, said a recent Black Education
Summit in Oakland concluded that K12 teachers and colleges must work closer
together, parents and churches need to do more in the area of mentoring and
tutoring and classes on parenting need to be supported. Other Black
leaders, however, are calling on more support for Black colleges and urging
Black high school graduates to enroll.

"Black colleges enroll only 18 percent of all Black college students but
award 30 percent of all bachelor's degrees and 42 percent of PhD's earned
by African Americans," said Gray.

This year, Black colleges provided one of the nation's 36 new Rhodes
scholars. Christopher Elders of Morehouse is planning to study at Oxford
next fall.

Meanwhile the battle for dollars continues to heat up.

Some Republicans say they are backing a plan by Bush to boost aid to Black
colleges by 30 percent over the next four years. Some Democrats want to
double aid to Black colleges in the next two years.

Congressman George Miller form the Bay Area has lined up 119 cosponsors of
a bill that would spend far more on Black colleges than what Bush is
planning, and Miller also wants to see "college prep programs, more student
loans and grants."

Article copyright Reporter Publishing Co.
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