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The Trump administration is redirecting nearly $500 million in federal funding to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and tribal colleges, the Education Department announced this week, in what it described as a one-time investment made possible by cuts to other minority-serving programs.
The move represents a 48% increase in federal funding for HBCUs and more than doubles the resources available to tribal colleges, officials said. But the boost comes at a steep cost: $350 million in cuts to programs for Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), as well as reductions for colleges serving Asian American, Native American, and Black students under separate federal grant programs.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon defended the decision, calling the changes necessary to ensure federal dollars are not used to advance what she described as discriminatory programs.
“The Department has carefully scrutinized our federal grants, ensuring that taxpayers are not funding racially discriminatory programs but those which promote merit and excellence in education,” McMahon said in a statement.
The administration is also steering an additional $60 million into charter schools and $137 million into American history and civics grants, consistent with President Donald Trump’s January executive action ordering the department to prioritize school choice and civics initiatives.
The reallocation was made possible under a stopgap funding bill passed by Congress earlier this year, which expanded the executive branch’s discretion over certain spending decisions.
Trump, who has often cast himself as a champion of HBCUs, touted the investment as a continuation of his first-term efforts, which included securing $250 million annually for HBCUs and creating an advisory board and White House summit.
Still, the administration’s decision to strip funding from HSIs and other programs sparked fierce criticism from Democrats and education advocates, who accused the White House of abandoning decades of bipartisan support for programs that expanded college access for underrepresented students.
The Justice Department, in a July memo, argued that the HSI program is unconstitutional because eligibility is limited to colleges where at least 25% of undergraduates are Hispanic. Tennessee, joined by Students for Fair Admissions — the group that successfully challenged affirmative action in college admissions — has filed a lawsuit to block the program, arguing that such thresholds unlawfully exclude universities that enroll Hispanic students but fall short of the benchmark.
“This is a direct attack on Latino students and the institutions that serve them,” one Democratic lawmaker said, warning the cuts would undermine social mobility for working-class families.
The Education Department maintained that funding was redirected away from “ineffective programs” and toward those “in the best interest of students and families.”
But critics counter that zeroing out support for gifted and talented programs, magnet schools, international education, and teacher training — many of which are also targeted for elimination in Trump’s 2026 budget proposal — will leave vulnerable students with fewer opportunities.
The cuts to HSIs mark a dramatic reversal of decades of precedent. Congress first authorized the program in 1998 after finding Latino students were enrolling and graduating at significantly lower rates than their white peers. Advocates say dismantling the program will only widen those disparities.
With the legal challenge moving forward and political opposition mounting, the future of federal support for Hispanic-serving colleges remains deeply uncertain — even as HBCUs and tribal colleges prepare for an unprecedented, but possibly one-time, windfall.
