LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- It's a broken promise to Black students in Louisville and across the nation as President Joe Biden's budget reconciliation bill proposes nearly $30 billion in cuts to historically Black colleges and universities.
This could impact Louisville's HBCU, Simmons College of Kentucky. It wants to add new programs, classrooms and dorms, but those plans are now in jeopardy.
For student Leila Ellington, playing violin is her gift. She studies music at Simmons College of Kentucky.
"It's a God-given talent," said Ellington. "(Simmons) has changed me for the better."
Ellington was once homeless. Now, she hopes to teach music for Jefferson County Public Schools.
"The journey's not easy, but it will be worth the fight at the end," she said.
But now, historically Black colleges and universities, like Simmons, are fighting for funding. Biden's $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill cut its allocation of HBCU funding by nearly $30 billion.
"In his State of the Union, (Biden) said the reason why HBCUs are behind is because HBCUs don't have endowments," said Simmons' President Dr. Kevin Cosby. "The reason HBCUs don't have endowment is because Black people don't have wealth. And that's not our fault. We have been engineered out of wealth."
Cosby said when looking at the country's top 10 HBCUs, they have "maybe $2 billion" in endowment funds.
"The top 10 white institutions have over $200 billion in endowments," he said. "So how do you make bricks without straw?"
Losing out on federal funding will mean losing plans like a new dorm building and a student center in downtown Louisville, plus similar losses to HBCUs nationwide.
"If it was just Simmons, then we can say that there's something Simmons is doing wrong," said Cosby. "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," she said. "But I'm just looking forward to bigger things happening in the future."
Instead of needing 60 votes, a reconciliation bill only needs a simple majority in the Senate.
Congressman John Yarmuth, of Louisville, says he'll work to ensure HBCUs are well represented in the final legislation passing in the weeks ahead, according to Christopher Schuler, communications director for the congressman.
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