Home News Did Trump Save HBCUs? – Inside Higher Ed

Did Trump Save HBCUs? – Inside Higher Ed

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President engages in “useful hyperbole” by claiming he rescued historically black colleges, but his administration has made good on some of its promise to support the sector.

Fact-checkers quickly corrected the record after President Trump, during remarks Monday at the Davos economic conference, declared that he had rescued historically black colleges and universities.

“I saved HBCUs. We saved them,” Trump said. “They were going out, and we saved them.”

The president’s brief comment appeared to refer to bipartisan legislation, dubbed the FUTURE Act, that the U.S. Congress passed in December. The legislation made permanent $255 million in annual STEM funding for minority-serving colleges, including roughly $85 million specifically allocated to HBCUs.

While many of the nation’s 102 HBCUs face financial pressure and the funding stream is important to them, it isn’t responsible for keeping their doors open.

Congress passed the legislation after a months-long negotiation over several higher education bills. Trump signed the law in December. So, as fact-checkers rightly noted, it’s a stretch at best for the president to claim he single-handedly saved the colleges by signing the law.

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