Funding Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Progress Toward Equality?

Abstract

For decades, state funding of public historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) has been shown to be de facto discriminatory relative to the funding of their predominately white counterparts. Although the dual system has been legally dismantled, the disparate funding has remained in place in a number of ways. For example, recent research shows that in 1995 approximately 17% of the fewer state funding dollars allocated to historically black institutions (HBI) relative to predominately white institutions (PWI) could be attributed to fiscal discrimination. After more than a decade, the present research uses 2006 finance data to provide tests as to the extent of progress in moving HBI toward greater funding equality.