The Trump administration’s newly proposed budget did not include an increase in funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and will take money away from and eliminate programs that help disadvantaged students.
The Education Department will, under the new proposal, suffer a 13.5 percent budget cut, going from $68.2 billion in 2017 to $59 billion in 2018. Not only will HBCUs and the Pell Grant Program will receive no additional funding, but the Pell Grant Program will lose its $3.9 billion reserve fund, which leaders had hoped to allocate to summer programs.
Programs receiving significant cuts in funding include Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) and Federal TRIO Programs, both of which help provide funding for students from low-income and disadvantaged backgrounds to attend school. The Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant and 21st Century Community Learning Centers programs are all to be eliminated entirely.
