Dive Brief:
- Advocates of historically black colleges have a victory in the latest free community college proposal before members of Congress.
- The original plan, which President Barack Obama announced in his 2015 State of the Union address, did not send any additional federal funding to four-year public or private HBCUs, but the one introduced last week would provide $10 billion over the next 10 years to subsidize the first two years of eligible student tuition.
- HBCU advocates pushed for funding because their institutions enroll a high proportion of first generation and low-income students, and Congressional leaders acknowledged their role in the legislation introduced last week.
Dive Insight:
The legislation introduced into the House and Senate includes funding for “minority-serving institutions,” which include HBCUs as well as Latino-serving and tribal colleges. HBCU leaders and allies were concerned by the original proposal for its potential to divert students from minority-serving institutions. Critics of the final version, however, question whether money from this initiative should go to private institutions. The bills do not limit funding to public colleges. In the Republican-controlled Congress, however, the arguments are almost surely moot. Free community college is incredibly unlikely to win bipartisan approval.