WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is redirecting nearly $500 million in federal funding toward historically Black colleges and tribal colleges, a one-time investment covered primarily by cuts to other colleges serving large numbers of minority students.
The Education Department announced the funding boost days after cutting $350 million from other grants, mostly from programs reserved for colleges that have large numbers of Latino students. Agency leaders said those grants were unconstitutional because they’re available only to colleges with certain minority enrollment thresholds.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the changes will redirect money away “from ineffective and discriminatory programs toward those which support student success.”
“The Department has carefully scrutinized our federal grants, ensuring that taxpayers are not funding racially discriminatory programs but those programs which promote merit and excellence in education,” McMahon said in a statement.
The department is also redirecting about $60 million toward funding for charter schools and $137 million toward American history and civics grants. President Trump in January issued an executive action ordering the agency to repurpose federal money toward charter schools and other school choice initiatives.
It amounts to a one-time federal funding boost of 48% increase for HBCUs and it more than doubles funding for tribal colleges and universities, the department said.
The department is flexing its power to repurpose discretionary funding to match the president’s priorities — made possible through a stopgap funding bill passed by Congress this year that gives the executive branch more authority over spending decisions.
Trump has long called himself a champion of HBCUs. During his first term, Congress added $250 million a year for HBCUs. This year Trump signed an executive action that pledges an annual White House summit, an advisory board and other support for HBCUs.
The Education Department said the money comes from programs found to be “not in the best interest of students and families.” It previously said the other minority-serving grants would be redirected to programs that do not rely on racial quotas.
A person familiar with the decision said money is also being directed away from programs that support gifted and talented programs, magnet schools, international education and teacher training. Most of those programs would be zeroed out in Trump’s 2026 budget request, said the person, who was not authorized to discuss the decision and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Last week’s cuts to the the Hispanic Serving Institution program reversed decades of precedent. Congress created the program in 1998 after finding that Latino students were going to college and graduating at far lower rates than white students. The department also cut several smaller programs for colleges serving certain percentages of Asian American, Black or Native American students.
The cuts drew swift blowback from Democrats, who said those programs have long had bipartisan support and fueled social mobility for working-class Americans.
A July memo from the Justice Department argues that the Hispanic Serving Institution grants are unconstitutional because they’re open only to colleges where a quarter of undergraduates or more are Latino. The department declined to defend the program in a suit brought by the state of Tennessee and Students for Fair Admissions, an anti-affirmative action group.
The lawsuit asks a federal judge to halt the grants. Tennessee argued all of its public universities serve Latino students but none meet the “arbitrary ethnic threshold” to be eligible for the funding. Those schools miss out on tens of millions of dollars because of discriminatory requirements, the suit said.
Binkley writes for the Associated Press.
