The Trump administration announced Monday that it would inject nearly $500 million into historically Black colleges and tribal universities, a windfall funded largely by cuts to programs elsewhere for minority students.
The administration will also redirect money to other political priorities for President Donald Trump, including an extra $137 million for American history and civics education and $60 million more for charter schools.
The increases follow a White House request for a 15% budget cut to the Education Department next year, as Trump seeks support to permanently shutter the agency. History programs will now receive about seven times their expected funding for this year, and charter schools will see a 13% increase.
To pay for the changes, the administration cut money from other parts of the education budget. The details of the changes were described by three people familiar with the plans who insisted on anonymity.
Advertisement
The biggest cut, announced by the Education Department last week, is a $350 million hit to programs that support minority students in science and engineering programs, schools with significant Hispanic enrollment, and other federal grants at minority-serving institutions.
Get Starting Point
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.
Enter Email
The administration also cut money from gifted and talented programs, which it said use racial targeting in recruitment in some cases, and from magnet schools, which have been used as a tool for combating school segregation.
The halt of $350 million in federal funding last week targeted seven grants for minority-serving institutions, which are colleges with significant minority student enrollment.
Instead, that money will be put toward historically Black colleges and universities, which were created to educate Black students at a time when other colleges would not serve them and are open to students of all races. These institutions will receive $1.34 billion this year, 48% more than was budgeted, according to the department.
Advertisement
Tribal colleges, which are typically controlled and operated by Native American tribes and receive federal support, will also get about $108 million this year, double their expected allotment from the Education Department, federal officials said.
Charters — publicly funded but privately run schools — will have $500 million to spend this year, up from the $440 million that federal lawmakers had approved.
To pay for the new money for charter schools, the administration cut $15 million from magnet schools, $9 million from gifted and talented programs, and $31 million from Ready to Learn, which funded PBS shows for young children.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.