A 2nd HBCU THREAD: This is an interesting op-ed by @kenblackwell & @THEHermanCain Lots of HBCU mentions recently with more coming in Tulsa. I'd like to footnote their piece to clarify some of their HBCU talking points. 1/
patriotpost.us/opinion/71014-…
patriotpost.us/opinion/71014-…
They write 1 of Trump's "first executive orders established both a White House initiative and a board of advisors on HBCUs." Carter created the program in 1980 "to overcome the effects of discriminatory treatment and to strengthen and expand the capacity" of HBCUs. 2/
"In 1981, President Reagan... established the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, which expanded the previous program and set into motion a government wide effort to strengthen our nation’s HBCUs." 3/ sites.ed.gov/whhbcu/about-u…
"In 1989, President George Bush... established a Presidential Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities to advise the president and the secretary of education on methods, programs, and strategies to strengthen these valued institutions." 4/
They also claim he relaunched the HBCU Capital Finance Board. Congress created the HBCU Capital Financing Program in 1992 under the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) to provide eligible HBCUs with access to low-cost financing. 5/ govinfo.gov/content/pkg/US…
The program has pretty consistently granted loans so not sure what they means by relaunched. 6/ www2.ed.gov/programs/hbcuc…
What the President did do initially was question the constitutionality of the HBCU Capitol Finance Program, but that was walked back and the program has continued. 7/ washingtonpost.com/news/grade-poi…
@THEHermanCain & @kenblackwell wrote "Attorney General Bill Barr’s Justice Department... issued an opinion that will allow faith-based HBCUs... to enjoy the same access to federal support for capital improvement projects as secular institutions." This still puzzles me. 8/
At the 2019 HBCU week (and Trump is the first sitting president to attend), he said "federal law restricted more than 40 faith-based HBCUs and seminaries from fully accessing federal support for capital improvement projects." That's not true. 9/ insidehighered.com/news/2019/09/1…
Refer to Tweet 6 and you'll see church-related schools as recipients. The law states "an institution in which a substantial portion of its functions is subsumed in a religious mission" are ineligible. 10/ justice.gov/olc/file/12009…
The Deputy Assistant AG wrote a 28 page opinion for HBCUs about a program they could already access based on a case of a church that wanted to build a playground for their nonsectarian daycare (the Supreme Court sided with the church in 2017). 11/
FY20 was a record for Title III funding for HBCUs, building on the program including the 10 year long term funding from the Obama administration which accounts for about a quarter of the funding. The new 10 year program was authored by @RepAdams 12/
With costs increasing we should want records to be broken every year! You can see going back to the 1980s there was generally an increase in Title III funding. 13/ www2.ed.gov/pubs/Biennial/…
Finally, Cain & Blackwell write Trump "included $1 billion in relief to HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions as part of federal pandemic relief efforts." No, HBCU advocates like @UNCF @tmcf & @_NAFEO began lobbying Congress in March. 14/ cdn.uncf.org/wp-content/upl…
Our friends in the @SenateDems also lobbied on our behalf. 15/ cdn.uncf.org/wp-content/upl…
@SenateDems The President did not add the HBCU money, nor publicly lobbied for it. It was a team effort, and part of the overall $1.8 Trillion CARES Act which he signed into law. That's not how any of the HBCU achievements are framed, and that's unfortunate. 16/ insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/2…
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