Biden's budget could cut billions from HBCUS, 'broken promise' for Louisville's Simmons College

Transcript

broken promises to black students in louisville and across the nation the latest version of president biden's budget bill proposes nearly 30 billion dollars in cuts to historically black colleges and universities wdrb's sarah seider explains how this could impact louisville's hbcu sarah simmons college in kentucky wants to add new programs classrooms and dorms but these plants are now in jeopardy for leela ellington violin is her gift it's a god-given talent [Music] she studies music at simmons college of kentucky it has changed me for the better ellington was once homeless now she hopes to teach music for jcps no the journey is not easy but it will be worth the fight at the end but now historically black colleges and universities like simmons are fighting for funding president biden's 3.5 trillion dollar budget reconciliation bill cut hbcu funding by nearly 30 billion dollars in the state of the union he said the reason why hbcus are behind is because hbcus don't have endowments and the reason hbcus don't have endowment is because black people don't have wealth we are a wealthless people and that's not our fault we have been engineered out of wealth simmons president dr kevin cosby says when looking at the country's top 10 hbcus we have maybe 2 billion dollars in endowment the top 10 white institutions have over 200 billion dollars in endowments so how do you make bricks without straw losing out on federal funding will mean losing plans like these new dorms and a student center in downtown louisville and similar losses to schools nationwide if it was just simmons then we can say that there's something simmons is doing wrong but if it's every black college in america then america needs to say perhaps what are we doing wrong it's money that gives more opportunities to students like ellington god has allowed me to come this far and he's still working with me he's not done with me yet but i i'm just looking forward to bigger things happening in the future and congressman john yarmuth says he'll work to ensure hbcus are well represented in the final legislation passing in the weeks ahead sarah sideree wdrb news