Black and Other Minority College Students in Texas Face a Steep Drop in Scholarship Aid

A budget deal among legislators in Texas threatens the higher educational opportunities of tens of thousands low-income students. Many of these low-income students are African Americans or Latinos.

Under the proposed deal, scholarships for students at state-operated colleges and universities will be cut by 27 percent. As a result, over the next two years, the number of students who would receive scholarship aid from the state would drop from 153,738 to 112,680, a decrease of more than 41,000 students.

The TEXAS Grants Program, which is the state’s largest scholarship program and serves lower-income students, would provide scholarships for 33,000 first-year college students compared to 72,000 new recipients this year.

Grants to students at private colleges and universities would be cut by 8 percent and the number of students receiving scholarship assistance at the state’s community colleges would be reduced by 19 percent.

The budget deal actually is an improvement over an earlier proposal that would have eliminated some grant programs altogether.

Copyright © 2011. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.