Another billionaire gives away money to HBCU’s for our young people to sit in libraries…
Click to access ScottHBCU_Report%20Final.pdf
This time – – half a billion!!!
And with no strings attached.
No one really knows how the specific HBCU schools were selected by MacKenzie – but this nice Rutgers study reverse engineered who got money and who didn’t.
Bigger schools,
That charge more,
With fewer students on Pell grants,
And higher retention and graduation rates.
Interesting.
Nobody can say anything bad about that woman.
That said…
We would have advised her to give directly to black Americans,
Who are HBCU alumni, not students or faculty,
Who have high student loans,
Who can prove they’ve been victims of economic discrimination, and
Who have a plan to help others in their local community.
Frankly, there’s really nothing wrong with having student loans.
If it was so horrible, so many wouldn’t use them.
The only ‘wrong’ about society, is the inability to repay the loans… and this, is statistically a racial problem, more than anything else.
5x gap by race, among graduates – – larger than the gap by gender, geography, or any other split of US households.
And… there’s really no one doing anything about this.
Literally – – there’s no state or fed agency that has a mission to close this 5x gap in fed student loan defaults.
So, when gov’t refuses, individuals have to step up to the plate… (Or, avoid college until in wealthy class, and can afford to idly sit in libraries for decades.)
Statistically speaking, the economy penalizes black Americans more than any other group for attending college.
This is affirmed by numerous studies… and it isn’t new data…
https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/in-the-balance/2015/why-didnt-higher-education-protect-hispanic-and-black-wealth
Data like this is particularly damning, against giving more money to the HBCU.
The question becomes, if MacKenzie knows this data, did she give to the schools so more students would be penalized???
These are hard questions…
But they really must be asked.
It’s likely, MacKenzie has good intentions… but there’s just too much political pressure and momentum to do differently.
Too many of her counselors are giving the same (old) advice, and most are in denial about the unwillingness of the economy to honor the formal educational investments of black American people like it honors other groups.
It’s also politically safe to do what other billionaires have done already… like the Greenwood Initiative.
MacKenzie — We call on you and your peers to use the ‘next half a billion’ to be focused on HBCU alumni – start with those who have more federal student loans from HBCU schools but due to the standing legacy of American slavery haven’t been able to repay those loans… and, we would add as a selection criteria… those who have a plan to help others in their local communities.
Feel free to reach out with questions, MacKenzie. Would be glad to work with you and your team.