“The CARES Act, passed in March 2020, gave $1 billion to HBCUs and Minority Serving Institutions specifically. More than 20 of the roughly 100 HBCUs around the country have been using these funds to help their students pay off debts owed to the school.” HBCU Erasing Student Debt With Federal Funds Brings Hope For Students and Schools by Deepa Shivaram https://www.npr.org/2021/08/14/1027401478/hbcu-student-debt-federal-funds-wealth-gap
Many Historically Black Colleges and Universities are using the CARES Act also called the COVID money to pay down or off their students’ debt. This is a welcome and helpful boost to many of these students who would otherwise have to discontinue their education until they were able to secure the required funds to reenroll or they would be forced to drop out altogether. Administrators are using the money to pay off the back balances of students which greatly helps keeping them in school, speed their graduations and hopefully lessen their overall debt load.
“Historically Black colleges and universities are using an influx of Covid relief cash to forgive student balances while recovering from the pandemic. At least 20 HBCUs have cleared student account balances for the majority of the 2020-2021 academic school year after seeing a 5% drop in enrollment during the pandemic, straining systems already facing historic financial crunches. Administrators said the moves are essential to aid students through the pandemic because graduates of historically Black colleges typically carry more student loans than those who graduate from predominantly White schools. ‘We’re aware that the number one reason students don’t return to college, as a whole, is lack of funds—especially at HBCUs,’ said Glenda Glover, president of Tennessee State University, which announced Aug. 4 it would clear balances of returning students who were enrolled from spring 2020 to summer 2021.” Black College Invest COVID Funds in Scrapping Student Balances https://news.bloomberglaw.com/social-justice/black-colleges-invest-covid-funds-in-scrapping-student-balances
The decision is a Win-Win for all involved: the colleges and universities receive much needed revenue, the students get their back balances cleared allowing them to enroll the coming semester, the money reduces the probability of a loan default once the student graduates, it keeps the universities numbers up and minimizes the potential for loan default, a situation that is extremely devastating to both the student and the institution because it impacts both their credit ratings. https://cdn.uncf.org/wp-content/uploads/reports/FINAL_HBCU_Loan_Debt_Burden_Report.pdf
As welcome as these initiatives are, they are not a long term solution to the pressing issues facing most HBCUs. “The one-time forgiveness isn’t enough to address longstanding racial gaps or level the playing field for Black students. Nearly three-quarters of Black students typically graduate or leave their institutions with Title IV federal student loan debt, compared to 55% of White students, according to a report from the Roosevelt Institute. ‘We’ve been neglected over a period of time by federal and state governments,’ said Alabama State University President Quinton Ross. ‘While I’m grateful for what we’ve seen from lawmakers since 2020, we’re all just watching to see a full-time commitment because HBCUs have always been low-hanging fruit. It’s a good start, but we’re still watching.’” Black College Invest COVID Funds in Scrapping Student Balances https://news.bloomberglaw.com/social-justice/black-colleges-invest-covid-funds-in-scrapping-student-balances
We must keep in mind many HBCU students are the first in their families to enroll and attend college and many come from a lower socio-economic strata than many of their white counterparts. “HBCUs disproportionately enroll low-income, first-generation and academically underprepared college students –precisely the students that the country most needs to obtain college degrees. More than 75% of students at HBCUs rely on Pell Grants and nearly 13% rely on PLUS Loans to meet their college expenses.” https://www.tmcf.org/about-us/member-schools/about-hbcus/
In addition to the societal disadvantages many HBCU students experience, public HBCUs have also had to grapple with deliberate and chronic state underfunding, neglect and inequity by their state legislatures still tied to their legacy of racial apartheid and a two tiered system of higher education.
States like Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Maryland, Tennessee and Pennsylvania had to be taken to federal court in an effort to redress decades of deliberate underfunding. Maryland HBCUs will receive $577 million dollars over ten years as a result of their recently settled protracted federal lawsuit. Mississippi HBCUs received $500 million, Alabama received $400 million and Tennessee State is suing to get between $150- $544 million in back land grant funds. South Carolina State in Columbia South Carolina is also seeking redress for discriminatory underfunding.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf promised that Cheyney University the Commonwealth’s only state owned HBCU would not close on his watch, He guaranteed the $40 million dollars Cheyney owed PASSHE and upped funding for the Keystone Honors program but that is not enough. Thus far Pennsylvania has not invested the type of funds the aforementioned HBCUs garnered via the federal lawsuit filed against their states. These funds are needed for infrastructural improvements, deferred maintenance, new programs and technology.
Legal redress is one avenue but litigation is extremely time consuming and expensive. Where do we go from here considering the major challenges facing higher education in this country? We’ll discuss this in future articles.
