Policy Resolution EDU-18-43

WHEREAS, The Morrill Act of 1862 provided a grant of public land to each state and U.S. territory to fund a perpetual endowment for at least one institution to teach agriculture and the mechanical arts, but these institutions were predominantly White and barred Black people from attending at their inception;

WHEREAS, The Second Morrill Act, passed in 1890, provided for annual appropriations to States to support their land grant institutions, forbade racial discrimination in admission policies for institutions receiving these Federal funds, and granted States the right to establish separate colleges for Black and White students if federal funds were divided in a “just but not necessarily equal” manner;

WHEREAS, the Second Morrill Act led to the establishment of eighteen land-grant colleges predominantly in the southeast region of the United States, which were known as “Negro Land-Grant Institutions” and now more commonly as the “1890 land-grant institutions;”

WHEREAS, the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 requires matching funds from non-Federal sources for formula funds authorized under sections 1444 and 1445 of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 for research and extension activities at the 1890 land-grant institutions and Tuskegee University;

WHEREAS, the resident state of the land-grant institution is required to match a percentage of formula based federal funding received on a dollar-to-dollar basis, which is known as “one-to-one matching;”

WHEREAS, a report published by the Assoc. of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU), titled, “Land-Grant but Unequal: State One-to-One Match Funding for 1890 Land-Grant Universities,” details how ten of the eighteen 1890 land-grant institutions in seventeen states did not receive over $56 million due to them in state matching funds from 2010 – 2012;

WHEREAS, the APLU report also shows that from 2010 – 2012 1890 land-grant institutions received nearly $245 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for research and cooperative extension activities yet their respective states matched only $188 million; in contrast, all states either fully matched or exceeded the appropriations funding for the predominantly White 1862 Land Grant land institutions during the same time period;

WHEREAS, the USDA has a critical role in the administration of federal grants and funds to land-grant universities that require states to match a percentage of the federal funding it receives;

WHEREAS, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), including 1890 land-grant institutions, have been a foundation for the educational and economic advancement of African-Americans for more than a century;

WHEREAS, according to a study published by the United Negro College Fund, HBCUs are responsible for producing approximately 70 percent of all Black doctors and dentists, 50 percent of Black engineers and public school teachers, and 35 percent of Black lawyers;

WHEREAS, it should be a public policy goal of the federal government to enact laws aimed at eliminating the existing funding inequity between 1890 and 1862 land-grant institutions; and

WHEREAS, by increasing funding to 1890 land grant institutions, the federal government would provide vital support to institutions that have supplied a high quality education to people of all ethnicities for over a century.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL) urges state legislators, governors and institutional governing boards to ensure that the percent of formula funds the state will match is the same for 1862 and 1890 land-grant universities;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NBCSL urges state legislators, governors and institutional governing boards to ensure that 1890 land-grant institutions receive the one-to-one matching of funds from the state in a separate line-item budget;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NBCSL urges state legislators, governors and institutional governing boards to ensure that the process to request and receive matching funds is the same for 1862 and 1890 land-grant institutions;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NBCSL urges federal legislators to provide oversight to ensure that states meet their obligation for providing the one-to-one matching requirement and should incentive states to provide the same percentage of formula match funding to both 1862 and 1890 land-grant universities within their state; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the Vice- President of the United States, members of the U.S. Congress, and other federal and state officials as appropriate

• SPONSOR(s): Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter (SC) and Senator Hillman Frazier (MS)
• Committee of Jurisdiction: Education Policy Committee
• Certified by Committee Chair(s): Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (CA) and Representative Harold Love (TN)
• Ratified in Plenary Session: Ratification Date is December 2, 2017
• Ratification is certified by: Representative Gregory W. Porter (IN), President