May 3, 2025
Trump also issued an executive order on April 23 that purportedly ‘promotes excellence and innovation’ at the nation’s HBCUs, but made no commitment to funding those universities
The latest budget proposal from Donald Trump looks to continue his agenda of slashing and burning the Education Department by cutting its funding by $12 billion and in addition to this, contained provisions that cut programs targeted to low income students who are preparing for college and funding for the nation’s only federally funded HBCU, Howard University.
According to The New York Times, the $64 million in funding that Trump wants eliminated for the university and the elimination of $1.6 billion in K-12 programs known as TRIO and GEAR UP are a continuation of Trump’s expressed mandate to close the Department of Education.
As The Hill reported, the cut in funding to Howard University is related to a payment the federal government made to build the Howard University Hospital, which the Trump administration said in its budget proposal is no longer needed because the hospital has been completed.
Howard University acknowledged the government’s funding recommendations in a statement, but as BLACK ENTERPRISE previously reported, Trump also issued an executive order on April 23 that purportedly “promotes excellence and innovation” at the nation’s HBCUs, but made no commitment to funding those universities. Trump also formally ended President Joe Biden’s White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities via the same executive order.
This gave academics like Dr. Marybeth Gasman, the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Endowed Chair in Education and a Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University, pause as she indicated to Diverse Education via a statement.
“On the surface, the Order is a positive step and follows the support of past presidents since its inception under President Jimmy Carter. Trump’s Executive Order acknowledges HBCUs’ essential role in shaping Black leadership, intellect, and economic mobility,” Gasman said, she is also an expert on HBCUs and is the co-author of The Power of Historically Black Colleges and Universities with Dr. Levon Esters. “However, what is missing is any commitment to new federal funding. We’ll have to see what President Trump does next. Of note, the Biden Administration announced an investment of nearly $1.6 billion in funding within one week of issuing its executive order.”
Trump appears to be coasting on his 2019 bipartisan bill that reauthorized $225 million in mandatory funding to minority serving institutions and provided $85 million a year to HBCUs in perpetuity, based on his comments to several news outlets.
However, his predecessor, Joe Biden, gave more than $17 billion in funding to HBCUs during his tenure as president, and Biden’s $1.1 billion investment in need based grants in September 2024 stood to directly benefit the Black students who overwhelmingly make up the bulk of HBCU university student bodies.
According to the then executive director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs, Dietra Trent, Biden’s funding investment “simply builds on the unprecedented track record of delivery for HBCUs that this administration has had. A large portion of those funds will go in direct support to our students through need-based grants and need-based aid. So in terms of how that will impact our students, it will help them pay for college. It will take the burden off of families. It will help them to stay in college, so it’s going to have a huge impact,” Trent told The 19th News.
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