Trump Signs Executive Order On Historically Black Colleges And Universities

The initiative on HBCUs, “lost track, because they didn’t have the full force of the White House behind them”.

One college president said the comment was “very insensitive”, yet “very Trump-ish” at the same time.

The study, entitled “A Look at Black Student Success”, concluded that at most of the nation’s four-year public and private colleges and universities, a significant gap exists between the graduation rates of black students and white students.

Philander Smith College President Roderick Smothers offered positive reviews for the meeting at large, acknowledging the diverse reaction among his presidential peers, but saying that his “gut feeling” was that the Trump Administration had genuine affection for the mission and work of HBCUs. Only time will tell how much true support this administration will provide to HBCUs.

“The president and I admire the contributions of historically Black colleges and universities”, he continued. In 1989, President George H.W. Bush established a Presidential Advisory Board on HBCUs, and in 2002, President George W. Bush transferred the initiative from the White House to the Department of Education. “And it gives him an insight into really what’s happening”.

– One HBCU president says he left Washington DC disappointed after meeting with the president on the future of HBCU’s.

There were more than 231,000 students enrolled at black colleges and universities in 2014, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

In September 2013, President Obama’s Education Secretary Arne Duncan apologized to HBCU leaders and advocates for the Parent PLUS loan decision and the lack of communication.

But the authors also burrowed beneath the numbers to assess how well the nation’s institutions of higher learning are doing with low-income students – identified as those eligible for the Pell Grant.

But few details emerged on where funding for expanding Pell or other HBCU priorities would come from.

The leaders also asked for funds to help with infrastructure on black college campuses and resources to help better serve the inner cities, French said. “I suspect it was not at the New School”, he said, to chuckles from the audience. But Trump’s order didn’t include that goal.

Trump hasn’t yet submitted his budget to Congress, and critics are skeptical of his commitment to education broadly. “You’ve helped lead our country toward a more flawless union”, he said.

Speaking at the New School for Social Research on 14th Street, Sharpton taunted DeVos over the comment, which she made Monday night shortly meeting with the heads of a number of HBCUs in Washington. “You have long represented a challenge to the status quo, starting by providing a necessary opportunity to African Americans following the Civil War”.

In her remarks on Tuesday, DeVos tried to rectify the gaffe, noting that traditional schools “systemically failed to provide African Americans access to a quality education – or, sadly, more often to any education at all”. Trump is expected to soon release an executive order aimed at helping black colleges and universities.

Yet, it is a remarkable policy proposition for the African-American community.

The President said the schools will be a priority in his administration.

KIMBROUGH: Yeah, we’ll see.

The pen-happy President will also sign two bills: the Inspiring the Next Space Pioneers and Innovators and Explorers Act (INSPIRE) act and Promoting Women in Entrepreneurship Act.

“The proof in the pudding is going be the dollars”, she said. “We owe it to our alumni, we owe it to our students to be at the table”, said Ray Belton, president of Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Under Trump’s executive order, the initiative now will be housed in the Executive Office of the President.

There was much advance chatter about it being “historic”, and there were many signals from key Trump administration officials that they would surprise HBCUs with favorable treatment.