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National HBCU week is being celebrated by black colleges as well as their allies. Every year, funds from federal departments and agencies reaches historically black colleges. This includes money to be used for research in mathematics, engineering, technology as well as science.

In the year 2011, these funds dropped down by a considerable 13 percent. The figures were revealed according to an analysis that was carried out by the White House Initiative. The analysis was limited to historically black universities and colleges.

White House stated that there was a decline in the overall funding as far as higher education is concerned. However, when looked into figures involving student loans and grants, the funding that reached these colleges was actually more than the previous year. Advocates and experts associated with historically black colleges agreed that eventhough the drop in the funds is a matter of concern, it certainly should not ring any alarms in the national education system.

The data includes figures till the year 2011. The same year, fundings allotted to historically black colleges dropped down by around $145 million as compared to the funds approved in 2010. This was the first drop recorded since the year 2007. Data also shows that since 2007, there was a rather steady progress in the amount of funding until 2011 turned out to be a disappointment.

Out of all the different departments that are eligible for funding, Higher education department experienced a massive drop of around $43 million. Experts believe that one of the prime reasons behind this decrease is the overall reduction in funds allotted for research in field of technology, engineering, science and mathematics.

What is rather interesting to notice is that the reduction in funds has taken place inspite of the fact that the Obama administration has been pushing hard to provide more resources to colleges that are historically termed ‘black’. The administration, to its credit was successful in pulling higher grants for these colleges. The period between 2007 and 2010 saw a steep rise in funds that jumped from $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion.

In 2011 though, the funding approved in the economic stimulus bill for historically black colleges came to a standstill. It was around the same time that House of Representatives declared a ban on certain funding that was meant for specific projects. Ironically, the banned fundings were actually responsible benefiting these colleges in a big way.

Historically black colleges have been known to be operating with extremely tight budgets. Hence, a further drop in agency funding is surely going to be a massive dent in their overall functioning. Having said this, many federal agencies are taking initiatives on cutting budgets and coming up with some sort of funding for these colleges. Hence, the situation is not as bad as it looks.

Also, there is little chance that a drop in funding allocated for research would impact the overall budget of these colleges. The 13% drop in funding for historically black colleges is the same as for other universities and colleges.