ARE HISTORICAL BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES RELEVANT?
A recent op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal on the dire plight of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) has prompted a flurry of blogs and commentary from concerned blacks.
Amidst the expressions of angst and hand wringing decrying systemic racism, discrimination, loss of jobs, disparate incarceration, and the trend toward black irrelevance there was a common denominator in the commentary: something must be done to preserve HBCUs and black folks need to get involved.
The black nation in America has thousands of civic, social, fraternal, professional, religious organizations that collectively are spending millions of dollars each year on scholarships and other educational related assistance. So why are the HBCUs struggling?
One answer is that blacks have never fully accepted the responsibility of financially supporting the foundational institutions that are critical in determining whether black’s control their own destiny or have it controlled by others.
In the case of HBCUs most of the funding comes from the federal government and its rhetoric of education priority has not been matched by the generosity of its pocketbook.
The downward trend of federal funding was discussed in the latest report issued by the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. From 1993 through 2002 HBCU funding as a percentage of overall Institution of Higher Education (IHE) funding has gone down. In 2002, federal agencies spent $41.6 billion for all institutions of higher education, while $1.7 billion (or 4 percent) was spent for HBCUs.
It is important for black America to understand the slippery financial precipice that HBCUs are clinging to by being so dependent on federal funding. The Bush bait and switch on supporting HBCUs is an example of why blacks need to control the primary support of critical institutions such as education.
Shortly after entering the White House, George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13256 that created the President’s Board of Advisers on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. In the political rhetoric creating the board it was supposed to provide “reports on the progress achieved in enhancing the capacity of historically black colleges and universities to serve their students, including funding and recommendations for individual departments and agencies.”
The panel unanimously agreed in its first report that federal agencies and departments should establish “dedicated” programs to strengthen the nation’s black colleges and universities; the president should support the bills in Congress that would aid the “capacity-building” function within the HCBUs; and Bush should promote the long-term goal of raising the HBCU allocation to 10 percent of the federal funding provided to all institutions of higher education instead of the meager 4% level.
While the report languished in the bureaucratic maze the Bush administration issued a little publicized “Statement of Administration Policy” (SAP) that delineated the Administration’s position on a Senate energy bill that provided special assistance to black colleges in line with the advisory board’s recommendations. According to the SAP the administration demanded that the HBCU related language be stripped from the bill. This was the Administration’s perverted implementation of its direct order to “strengthen the capacity of historically black colleges.” These are the 103 institutions of higher education that matriculated 21 percent of black college students and also awarded 10 percent of masters’ and doctors’ degrees that blacks received.
With that in mind it is easy to give perspective to the urgency for blacks to take greater responsibility for their critical institutions. The Wall Street Journal piece by Abigal Thernstrom, a Manhattan Institute researcher, and Stephan Thernstrom, Harvard University history professor, is the latest in a long line of studies that ask the perpetual question, “Are historically black colleges good for blacks”? These studies, while scholarly, are the precursor for the majority establishment to continue to cut funding for the HBCUs and eventually to close them down.
If the resolve to take responsibility for the survival of our HBCUs is made then a reprioritization of the millions of dollars that pass through the thousands of black organizations could be the source of much needed funds. But the primary question is how does the mindset that has dictated the stagnant operations of these organizations get motivated to effect the necessary change?
For Black America today we must think beyond just getting our youth a degree. The challenge of the 21st century is the absence of sufficient skilled black thinkers and problem solvers to checkmate the intellectual charades designed to undermine black interests. While more of our young people are going to college and obtaining the requisite skills, they are not returning to their home communities to apply those skills and Black America is the worse for it.
Establishment minions take full advantage of this black dilemma by being the first in line to offer the most gifted black thinkers and problem solvers internships and summer employment during the undergraduate years. At graduation they make offers for high paying job packages complete with bonuses and perks. Our future Black leaders are then gradually indoctrinated into a life culture that is immunized, physically and emotionally, from the needs of the Black community.
Black America stands at an historical precipice. We have in our hands a wonderful opportunity, a Kairos moment to not only challenge ourselves but to challenge the smallness of our own concepts of who Black people can be in America. We should not let this moment in history pass as if we are impotent.
For those that would be leaders in Black America—now is your time.
James W. Breedlove
Comments or opinions may be sent to the writer at www.truthclinic.com