The Eroding Status of Blacks in Higher Education: An Issue of Financial Aid

This chapter discusses the dilemmas of educational access and choice faced by blacks and the historically black colleges (HBC) from the early 1970s to the present time from the perspective of student financial aid. It focuses on the black parents and students, higher education leaders and practitioners; public policymakers at local, state, and federal levels, and all citizens interested in preserving a hard-won, open system of higher education. The chapter also focuses on the federal government&s;s role in financing postsecondary education for blacks and the poor in no way negates the principle of shared responsibility in financing the cost of education. The declining status of blacks in higher education after 1976 was part and parcel of the developing retrenchment in equal opportunity as a national objective. When the higher education gains made by blacks are weighed against selected population parameters and the higher education gains of whites, erosion in progress of blacks is clearly visible.