Miseducated Devos, White House to support HBCUs wrongfully connecting them to controversial school choice agenda (READ STATEMENT)
"HBCUs are real pioneers when it comes to school choice."
Betsy Devos, U.S. Sec. of Education
The highest education official in the land apparently needs to take a black history course.
On this final day of Black History Month, Twitter is in an uproar over Sec. Of Eucation Betsy Devos' lack of knowledge and alternative facts shared in a statement.
For the record, black schools in general were formed as a direct result of racial discrimination and segregation of the times. African Americans had no choice pertaining to access to education in America. In fact, a slave learning to read was a life risking act. By law the Supreme Court ruled for the constitutionality of separate but equal schools in the Plessy VS Ferguson case in 1869. The road to equal access to education was long. It was not until 1954 that the case of Brown VS the Board of Education overturned Plessy, a case burgeoned by Attorney Thurgood Marshall, who later became the first African American Supreme Court Justice.
For the record, black schools in general were formed as a direct result of racial discrimination and segregation of the times. African Americans had no choice pertaining to access to education in America. In fact, a slave learning to read was a life risking act. By law the Supreme Court ruled for the constitutionality of separate but equal schools in the Plessy VS Ferguson case in 1869. The road to equal access to education was long. It was not until 1954 that the case of Brown VS the Board of Education overturned Plessy, a case burgeoned by Attorney Thurgood Marshall, who later became the first African American Supreme Court Justice.
Devos' opinion runs counter to the information on the Web site of the department she heads (www.ed.gov), which further underscores the correct reason HBCUs were founded: "Prior to the time of their establishment, and for many years afterwards, blacks were generally denied admission to traditionally white institutions. As a result, HBCUs became the principle means for providing postsecondary education to black Americans."
Today, Pres. Trump is expected to sign an Executive Order on HBCUs that would place the liaison office for HBCUs and the government in the White House. "It’s expected to significantly strengthen the office that pushes the federal government to do business with the colleges by moving it to the White House…," as reported by White House staffers.
Under funding, access to jobs after graduating from minority based schools and a lack of resources to remain competitvie have long been well documented challenges HBCUs face. The primary focus of the EO would be to deliver more federal funds to those HBCUs.
Over the years many black leaders have condemned the federal government for holding back financial support to HBCUs.
In 2014 Hampton University President, Dr. William Harvey, then the chairman of the White House Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities under the Obama Administration, cited daming statistics on the federal government's commitment to properly funding black institutions of higher learning at the annual HBCU Conference.
The White House says Trump plans to support HBCUs with funding measures that would "out do" his predecessors, including the first African American president, Barack Obama.
The statement from Sec. of Education Devos regarding e meeting with HBCU leaders follows in its entirety:
Statement from Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos Following Listening Session with Historically Black College and University Leaders
FEBRUARY 28, 2017