A Congressional Report Card Scores Legislators on Their Support for Financial Aid Initiatives for African Americans

The Campaign for America’s Future, a left-wing interest group, has issued a report critical of the effort of the GOP-controlled Congress to reduce funding for federal financial aid programs. The group, whose founding members include prominent black scholars such as William Julius Wilson of Harvard, Roger Wilkins of George Mason University, and Linda Faye Williams and Ronald Walters, both from the University of Maryland, gives letter grades to all incumbent members of Congress on their voting record on college affordability.

The report states that the average total cost of a college education at a state-operated educational institution is 37 percent of the median black family income. The average cost of a college education at a public university has increased by 42 percent since President Bush took office. Yet the median family income for black families during this period has actually gone down by 8 percent.

At private colleges the total cost of a college education is 86 percent of the median black family income. Given the rising costs of college and the drop in black incomes, the Campaign for America’s Future believes that cuts in federal financial aid are unjustified.

The full report, Higher Education Soaring Out of Reach for African-American Families, can be downloaded by clicking here.

Copyright © 2006. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.