Article/Column

At Thanksgiving each year, I always pause to give thanks for the blessings in my life. It is a season to be humble, a time to allow ourselves to realize just how much we owe to those who have spent a lifetime guiding our conscience and training our minds.

 

I never allow myself to forget that, nearly four decades ago, I was one of those young people empowered by the privilege to attend college. Grateful for the education that I received, I am determined to pass on that same opportunity to the young people of today.

 

Howard University transformed my life. Today, I am privileged to serve on the Board of Regents of another of our “Historically Black College and Universities,” Morgan State University.

 

I am constantly reminded that our HBCUs are a national treasure that we should do everything within our power to support. They comprise less than 3 percent of this nation’s institutions of higher learning. Yet, even after decades of integration, they still produce the largest number of African American degrees. 

 

Year after year, committed young people are marching out of their graduation ceremonies, ready to serve their communities. As a nation, we would be wise to build upon this strength.

 

Consider these facts.

 

Morgan State University now ranks 8th nationally in the number of baccalaureate degrees earned by African Americans. Across the length and breadth of American, Baltimore’s Coppin State University and more than 100 other HBCUs are lifting up the communities they serve.

 

They have earned our nation’s gratitude, and they deserve our support. Yet, there are those in the Congress who continue to vote as if higher education for minority Americans is an expensive luxury. For years, they did little to expand federal scholarship assistance to students in need.

 

Last year, Federal Pell Grants (the need-based cornerstone of federal aid) provided nearly $14 billion in scholarship help to more than 5 million deserving students. Yet, all to often, this funding was not enough. The maximum federal Pell Grant for college students in need remained frozen at $4,050 for years.

 

As a result, thousands of deserving students were denied the opportunity to succeed.

 

This year, the Democratic leadership in Congress took action to correct that tragic, and short-sighted, error. I was proud to fight for passage of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 (H.R. 2669).

 

Our new legislation will increase the maximum Pell Grant scholarship each year for the next five years, reaching $5,400 by 2012. Interest rates on need-based federal student loans will be progressively cut in half during that period.

HBCUs, in particular, will receive an additional$170 million in direct grants, additional support that is long overdue.

 

The new congressional leadership made this change in national priorities both as a declaration of our shared morality and as a concrete exercise in support of our national security.

 

In my work in Washington, I have often observed to my colleagues that our failure to adequately educate all of our people is the single most dangerous long-term threat to our country. Opening the doors to college for all of our future scientists, teachers and leaders is a challenge that we fail to meet at our peril.

 

Last spring, Morgan State University awarded 218 undergraduate and graduate degrees in the math, science and engineering disciplines that are so critical to our long-term national security. We should all be asking ourselves how much more Morgan State could be contributing with expanded federal support.

 

I serve on the House Armed Services Committee, and I have a good answer to that important question. Since last summer, I have been working to educate the US Department of Defense (DoD) about the critical contributions to our national security that HBCUs like Morgan State can and should be making.

 

This month, those efforts began to pay off.

 

Like many of its programs, the DoD funding mechanism for HBCUs has a long name: the “Infrastructural Support Program for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Institutions.” Unlike most of the other DoD funding initiatives, however, defense funding for HBCUs remained stagnant and inadequate for more than a decade.

 

Now, that will change. During our work to enact the Fiscal Year 2008 Defense Appropriations Bill (H.R. 3222), I succeeded in more than doubling the Defense Department’s investment in the math, science and engineering programs at Morgan State and other HBCUs to $37 million annually.

 

These competitive grants and contracts will allow our HBCU’s to qualify for federal research opportunities, provide gifted students with scholarships and fellowships at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and purchase highly sophisticated research equipment

 

Through this funding, we begin to harness all of the talent of this great country. It is a wise investment in our national security by which we can share our prayers of hope and Thanksgiving with generations of Americans yet to be born.