Morehouse College President: We Got Played [View all]

[erpowers]

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After meeting with the Trump administration for two days and reviewing Cheddar Bob’s executive order on HBCUs, Morehouse College President John Wilson Jr. issued a statement Thursday admitting that over 100 HBCU presidents went to the White House, and all they got was a lousy Instagram photo.

Wilson said that he and other black college heads were excited when they heard Trump’s usual hyperbole promising to “do more for HBCUs than any other president has done before.” After all, President Barack Obama set aside $3 billion for African-American colleges and made them a priority within the Department of Education, so Trump—Wilson reasoned—would at least give them $500 million more for this year alone, right? Maybe he’d even boost Pell Grants and create an innovation fund! At least he’d do something Republican, like offer tax breaks to companies that donate to HBCUs! Those are reasonable expectations, right?

Wrong.

All Trump did was move the HBCU initiative from the Department of Education to the Executive Office of the President—presumably where he uses it as a coaster for his presidential haterade. Aside from that, all the college presidents got was a look at Kellyanne Conway’s bony knees and a few more frequent-flier miles. In her dual role as White House mascot and secretary of shuck and jive, Omarosa Manigault explained, “That’s all we got, bruh.”

http://www.theroot.com/morehouse-college-president-we-got-played-1792916254?utm_source=theroot_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow



OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT: Statement on HBCU Presidents Visit to White House

I spent the last two days in meetings at the White House and on Capitol Hill.  As some of you may know, all HBCU presidents were invited to a dialogue with President Trump and his new administration about support for HBCUs.  Most of the 104 HBCU presidents attended, including all presidents from the Georgia-based HBCUs.

Many had high hopes about this meeting.  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.  Given my experience in the Obama administration, I knew this would require an extraordinary announcement.  Why?  Because I knew that President Obama had invested $3 billion more in HBCUs in his first six years than President Bush invested in his final six years.  Therefore, since President Trump pledged to “do more for HBCUs than any other president has done before,” we could have reasonably expected him to get started by announcing at least an additional $500 million to HBCUs…this year!  And beside the expectation of new funding, there was advance talk of changes like an aspirational goal of 5 to 10 percent for federal agency funding to HBCUs, a special HBCU innovation fund, large boosts in Pell Grant and Title III funding, and extra tax breaks for those in the private sector who contribute to HBCUs.  But, instead of the long-awaited executive order containing or signaling any of those outcomes, the key change is a symbolic shift of the White House HBCU Initiative from the Department of Education to the White House.  It is not possible to measure the impact of this gesture anytime soon, if ever. 

It should also be noted that, in her luncheon speech to HBCU presidents yesterday, Education Secretary DeVos struck a discordant note when she said of HBCUs, “They started from the fact that there were too many students in America who did not have equal access to education. They saw that the system wasn't working, that there was an absence of opportunity, so they took it upon themselves to provide the solution. HBCUs are real pioneers when it comes to school choice.”

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In general, the meetings were a troubling beginning to what must be a productive relationship.  Trust that the HBCU community will continue to press for the kind of funding that educational excellence and national competitiveness require!

http://www.morehouse.edu/collegestatements/officeofthepresidentstatementonhbcupresidentsvisittowhitehouse.html