This story has been updated.
The Trump administration said it will redirect $435 million to historically Black colleges and universities and tribal campuses as it defunds grant programs for other minority students at other institutions.

On Monday, the Department of Education also announced it will invest more than $160 million in American history and civics education programs. The department said it also plans to award grants totaling $500 million for charter schools.

This week’s announcement comes less than a week after the department said it will end approximately $350 million in discretionary funding to several minority-serving institutions that “discriminate by conferring government benefits exclusively to institutions that meet racial or ethnic quotas.”

Among institutions defunded are Hispanic-serving institutions and predominantly Black institutions, which are different from HBCUs. HBCUs are colleges and universities founded before 1964 with the intention to serve Black communities. PBIs are campuses with about half the student body identifying as Black or African American, such as Chicago State University, Georgia State University, and the Community College of Philadelphia. 

Nonprofit organizations that work closely with HBCUs celebrated the news, calling this a win for the Black colleges. The United Negro College Fund said it supports the reprogramming of the funds in a statement.

“HBCUs are pretty much the only group of higher education institutions that’s never discriminated against,” Lodriguez V. Murray, UNCF’s senior vice president for public policy and government affairs, told Capital B. “You check our history on who could be enrolled in our institutions, we’ve never had a policy that this race cannot attend our institutions.” 

Murray noted that HBCUs are not classified as minority-serving institutions, but are recognized by Congress, UNCF, and several administrations as such. 

The department called the minority-serving institutions’ programs “ineffective and discriminatory” in the first release. On Monday, the DOE credited HBCUs for targeting resources toward the most effective interventions to bolster educational outcomes, mirroring past statements made by President Donald Trump in his support for Black colleges. 

The department did not immediately respond to Capital B’s request for comment on further details about the funds.  

Murray said that, because of this, HBCUs are the best at educating Pell Grant-eligible students, adding that Black colleges take on this group more than other institutions in higher education. 

“This is another reason why HBCUs deserve this funding,” he said. 

The funds, which are Title III, will support both public and private Black colleges. Under the Higher Education Title III funding, HBCUs will benefit from federal funding to serve low-income students. 

The UNCF partners with 37 HBCUs to support them in maintaining strong and affordable academic programs, according to the nonprofit, several of which will benefit from Title III funding. 

Murray continued to list several smaller Black institutions — such as Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama, and Paine College in Augusta, Georgia — that may not be as well  known to those outside of their communities, calling this funding miraculous. 

“Those institutions whose names may not be known by the general public do a tremendous job in punching above their weight and contributing to the areas where they are located,” he said. 

The types of programs funded under Title III include maintenance and construction projects, the establishment of endowment funds, and the provision of low-cost loans and grant-based awards. 

“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,” said Linda McMahon, the U.S. Secretary of Education. 

In April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that recognizes HBCUs and pledges his administration’s support. 

“This order will continue the work begun during my first administration to elevate the value and impact of our nation’s HBCUs as beacons of educational excellence and economic opportunity that serve as some of the best cultivators of tomorrow’s leaders in business, government, academia, and the military,” Trump said in order. 

In total, HBCUs will receive more than $1.34 billion, and tribally controlled colleges and universities will receive more than $108 million from the department for fiscal year 2025, according to the DOE. 

During his first term, Trump signed the FUTURE Act into law, which permanently provides more than $255 million a year to HBCUs, according to a White House Fact Sheet about Trump’s commitment to Black colleges. 

Although there is no specific breakdown of the Biden-Harris administration’s allocation to HBCUs by year, the administration announced in 2024 that it had set a record for investing over $17 billion between fiscal years 2021 and September 2024. 

Marybeth Gasman, the executive director of the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions, said she understands HBCUs need the money. Still, she is disheartened that their leaders are not speaking up for those in higher education who are losing funding. But she’s not surprised. 

“I think the UNCF, being such an important and powerful institution in higher ed, should speak up and say, ‘but it’s important to take care of the other minority-serving institutions’ because they do important work too,” said Gasman, who has done extensive research on Black colleges. 

The UNCF said the organization has done significant work with the current and past administrations, as well as Congress, to aid in legislation that benefits Black colleges and Black students, such as the CARES Act to provide COVID-19 relief for colleges and students, and the FUTURE Act.

Gasman said because of organizations like UNCF and Thurgood College Fund, she’s not surprised the DOE and Trump recognized HBCUs for their contributions to society. Still, organizations like The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities and Excelencia in Education that have focused on Hispanic and Latino student success have also been pushing for more government support.

Gasman pointed out the irony of Trump’s recent attacks on Black history for reflecting on “how bad slavery was.”

However, she said she would not be surprised if there’s a hidden agenda behind funding HBCUs and tribal colleges. 

Trump has made several statements about his contributions to Black colleges that have garnered reactions from the HBCU community. 

During the presidential debate in 2020, Trump said, “President Obama would never give them long-term funding, and I did.” He said that he “saved historically Black colleges and universities.” 

“More than likely, he is trying to earn the favor of African American and Native American communities for political purposes,” Gasman said about the amount of money the Trump administration is reserving for the institutions. “If he does this now, he can come out and say, ‘I saved them. Without me, they would be struggling.’ ‘I’ve done more for them than any U.S. president or Barack Obama.’”