News
HBCUs Divided over Free Community College Plan
By Freddie Allen
NNPA Senior
Washington
Correspondent
WA S H I N G T O N
(NNNPA) – Black college
educators and supporters are
sharply split over whether
President Obama’s proposal
to offer a free two-year
community college educa-
tion to students making
progress toward earning an
associate or bachelor’s
degree would hurt are harm
Historically Black Colleges
and Universities (HBCUs).
Lezli Baskerville, presi-
dent and CEO of the
National Association for
Equal Opportunity in High-
er Education (NAFEO), a
nonprofit network of Histor-
ically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCUs) and
Predominantly Black Insti-
tutions (PBIs), including
community colleges, said
that for students who have a
gap in funding or choose to
don’t get the research dol-
lars that can help sustain
you. You rely on students
being there from their fresh-
man to their senior year. But
if you are going to lose a
great portion of those stu-
dents for the first two years,
you really will have to
change your model, your
business plan.”
Johnny Taylor, president
and CEO of the Thurgood
Marshall College Fund, ,
agrees.
“My fear is a real one and
that this is going to signifi-
cantly, negatively impact
private HBCUs and I think
it’s going to have some neg-
ative impact on public
HBCUs,” he said. “Mama
and Daddy are going to say,
‘If you can go to community
college for free, that’s
where you are going the
first two years.’ So, what
you have essentially done is
cut in half the revenue for
private HBCUs. Private
HBCUs are going to feel
is 16 in Louisiana, so you
could imagine how many
Black students could not go
to Southern because of that
change,” said Toldson. “So,
they had to go to a commu-
nity college or whatever
college would accept them.”
According to data collect-
ed by the ACT program,
Black graduating high
school seniors scored an
average of 17 on the exam
in 2014, compared to White
students who scored 22.3 on
average.
“By 2020, an estimated 35
percent of job openings will
require at least a bachelor’s
degree and 30 percent will
require some college or an
associate’s degree,” White
House officials said. “Forty
percent of college students
are enrolled at one of Amer-
ica’s more than 1,100
community colleges, which
offer students affordable
tuition, open admission
policies, and convenient
locations.”
Seventy-five percent of
the funding for the proposal,
called “America’s College
Promise” will come from
the federal government with
participating states con-
tributing the rest of the
money needed to cover
tuition costs. White House
officials estimate that the
program will cost the feder-
al government $60 billion
over 10 years, if all states
participate.
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‘So, what you have essentially
done is cut in half the revenue
for private HBCUs’
go to a two-year institution
and don’t have adequate
funding, America’s College
Promise would create
another opportunity for
them.
“We are trying to make
sure that students that want
to go and get a technical
certification or some train-
ing to get their foot in the
door, can do that,” said
Baskerville. “We also want
to incentivize and facilitate
students who want to get a
four-year degree doing that,
especially low-income stu-
dents for whom options are
very, very limited.”
Baskerville said that the
jury is still out on whether a
student would opt to go to a
two-year college for free
instead of going to an
HBCU.
“If they’re going to a two-
year institution, they’re
going to get a certificate or a
two-year degree, something
to get them market-ready or
entrepreneurship-ready,”
explained Baskerville. “If
they’re going to a four-year
HBCU
they’re
going
because they appreciate the
ethos of historic Black col-
leges that are built on the
traditions of the African
American community of
family, faith, fellowship,
service and social justice.”
However, Lester C. New-
man, president of Jarvis
Christian
College
in
Hawkins, Texas, believes
HBCUs will pay a price.
“They are going to suf-
fer,” he said. “Not too many
schools can operate with
just the third and fourth
level, especially four-year
institutions that don’t have
graduate programs. You
this in a way you can’t even
imagine.”
Taylor said he supports
President Obama’s overall
goal of providing free col-
lege assistance, but thinks it
should be done in a manner
that would be less harmful
to HBCUs.
The United Negro College
Fund (UNCF), which repre-
sents private HBCUs, has
not issued a statement on
the community college pro-
posal.
As educators and HBCU
advocates debate whether
the program will have a dis-
parate impact on Black
schools, Toldson argued that
enrollment at HBCUs has
already taken a hit, because
of state-level policy choic-
es.
Toldson used Southern
University in Baton Rouge,
La., as an example. Toldson
said that when he taught at
the school in 2005, there
were
10,000
students
enrolled and over the last
decade that number has
dwindled to 6,000. Over the
same period, Toldson said
that community college
attendance increased to
about 9,000 students.
But Toldson said that the
fall in enrollment at South-
ern University had more to
do with changes in admis-
sion requirements that
affected all state universities
in Louisiana than direct
competition from communi-
ty colleges in the region.
Toldson said that new
guidelines barred Southern
University from admitting
students that scored less
than 20 on their ACT
exams.
“The average ACT score
January 21, 2015 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 11