(The Center Square) — A bunch of Georgia lawmakers mentioned the state wishes to extend funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Their name follows a letter U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack despatched letters to governors in 16 states, together with Georgia, asking them to lift HBCU funding.
“This call for action is not just about education,” state Rep. Sandra Scott, D-Rex, mentioned all the way through a up to date news convention. “It’s about equity, opportunity and the future of countless students. In a country that prides itself on equality and pursuit of the American dream, it is deeply troubling that such a vast funding gap exists between HBCUs and other public universities.
“The numbers don’t lie,” Scott added. “Over $12 billion — a staggering quantity — separate those establishments. This funding hole perpetuates a systemic inequity that we can not manage to pay for to forget about any more.”
Scott said Fort Valley State University, an 1890 land-grant institution, could have had an additional $603 million over the past 30 years had the school been funded at the same level as the University of Georgia on a per-student basis.
“This is a state of affairs that obviously predates all folks. However, this is a drawback that we will paintings in combination to unravel,” Cardona and Vilsack said in their letter to Kemp. “In reality, it’s our hope that we will collaborate to steer clear of burdensome and dear litigation that has befell in numerous states.”
A request for comment from Fort Valley State University went unanswered.
A spokesman for Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, referred questions to the University System of Georgia, which said in an email it is “operating to assemble information and details after which will reply to the letter.”
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