Last May, President Barack Obama's education budget reduced funding given to HBCUs by $85 million. In a reporter's roundtable yesterday at the White House, Secretary Arne Duncan said: "There was some worry about losing money to HBCU's. We kept that $85 million and we proposed an additional $13 million on top of that to increase it."

Our dropout rate in the country is 27 percent. That's higher than most "developing countries" in the world. Duncan said President Obama's mission by 2020 is to "increase the percentage of college graduates. This is the Civil Rights issue of our time, the dividing line between the haves and have nots. Other countries have passed us by. We have to educate ourselves to a better economy."

While the 105 HBCUs represent just 3 percent of the nation's institutions of higher learning, they graduate nearly 20 percent of African Americans who earn undergraduate degrees.

Among graduating more than 50 percent of African American professionals, HBCUs also:

• graduate more than 50 percent of African American public school teachers and 70 percent of African American dentists


• have allowed 50 percent of African Americans to go on to graduate or professional schools


• award more than 1 in 3 of the degrees held by African Americans in natural sciences


• award one-third of the degrees held by African Americans in mathematics

Famous HBCU alum Thurgood Marshall (Lincoln University), Toni Morrison (Howard University), Ed Bradley (Cheyney State College, now Cheyney University), Alice Walker (Spelman College), Earl G. Graves (Morgan State University) and Douglas Wilder (Virginia Union University).

But these schools continue to suffer financially, often increasing tuition to make up for lack of endowments. Last year, Spelman College in Atlanta experienced a 3 percent drop in enrollment. To combat losses in its endowment and enrollment, the school eliminated 35 staff positions and cut its operating budget. Clark Atlanta was hit even worse. The school was forced to lay off 70 faculty members because students were not able to afford tuition.

The additional $13 million allocated by the Obama administration will be used for infrastructure projects and improving technology on campuses and will make it easier for low-income families to receive federal grants, which would be used to pay for tuition.

Many question the viability of HBCUs in today's climate. Are we still graduating prestigious alum from these institutions? And what about support for parents? Or middle-income students? I wrote recently about a nonprofit agency that provides aid to students in primarily white independent schools by supplying coats for everyone in the house during inter, helping parents who can't pay the rent, helping parents who don't have cars get to college visits. Do you think that in addition to money, there should be some social service components aimed at helping the entire family? Some charter schools have incorporated such programs, including having parent retreats and open dialogue between parents and students to discuss economic hardships. What do you think?

Some of the administration's proposals (they have to pass in the House and Senate) include:

*$10 billion over the next decade to early childhood

*Increasing access to disadvantaged communities and making sure it's of the highest quality

*Simplifying the FAFSA (financial aid form)

*Increasing Pell Grants and Perkins loans

*Investing heavily in community colleges

*$13 million increase to HBCUs

*An income-based repayment program (reduce monthly payments to 10 percent of your income)

Duncan ended the roundtable discussion by stating, "Obama sees education as an investment, not as an expense."