Education (EDU) Policy Committee : National Black Caucus of State Legislators

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Resolution EDU-20-24

A RESOLUTION ON RECOGNIZING CHARLES R. DREW UNIVERSITY OF MEDICINE AND SCIENCE AS A HBCU

WHEREAS, historically Black Colleges and Universities were established before 1964 to serve the educational needs of the African American community and provide opportunities for many African Americans, who were once legally denied an education;

WHEREAS, historically Black Colleges and Universities provide African American students with a nurturing environment to explore their collective identities and cultures;

WHEREAS, there are more than 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the United States, but none are located west of Texas;

WHEREAS, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science is a private, nonprofit, student-centered university committed to cultivating diverse health professional leaders dedicated to social justice and health equity for underserved populations;

WHEREAS, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science is recognized by the United States Department of Education as a Historically Black Graduate Institution, serving students and communities across the country by offering outstanding education, research, clinical service, and community engagement;

WHEREAS, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science is not currently recognized on the National Trust for Historic Preservation as a Historically Black College and University;

WHEREAS, in 1941, as World War II progressed, Los Angeles faced a labor shortage in the war industries, and a huge migration of African Americans, mainly from the Deep South, moved to southern Los Angeles, including Carson, California, to seek employment;

WHEREAS, in 1963, Dr. Sol White, a Black pediatrician, surveyed the Watts area and was dismayed by the fact that the closest hospital was miles away and the ratio of doctors was 160 for a population of 252,000;

WHEREAS, a year later, the State Advisory Hospital Council rejected a proposal from Dr. White to build a hospital in Watts;

WHEREAS, in 1965, civil disturbance erupted in the Watts community of Los Angeles, California, later known as the Watts Rebellion. Before the 1960s were over, a total of 265 American cities would experience racial upheaval;

WHEREAS, in August 24, 1965, Governor Edmund G. Brown charged the Governor’s Commission on the Los Angeles Rebellion to establish an accurate chronology and description of the Rebellion and attempt to draw any lessons which may be learned from a retrospective study of these events;

WHEREAS, the Governor’s commission, led by John A. McCone, found that health conditions of the medical facilities and care were insufficient in the South-Central Los Angeles area and that the number of doctors in the southeastern part of Los Angeles were grossly inadequate;

WHEREAS, in the five decades since the school was incorporated in the Watts Willow brook area of Los Angeles in 1966, Charles R. Drew University has graduated more than 575 physicians, 1,200 physician assistants, over 1000 nursing professionals, including more than 600 family nurse practitioners, over a thousand other health professionals, in addition to training over 2,700 physician specialists through its sponsored residency programs;

WHEREAS, in 1998, the National Trust for Historic Preservation designated Historically Black Colleges and Universities nationwide as one of the nation’s 11 most endangered historic sites; and

WHEREAS, a designation as a Historically Black College and University by the National Trust for Historic Preservation would make Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science eligible to qualify for greater levels of federal support.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL) recognizes the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science is of historical significance relative to the migration of African Americans across the Unites States to southern Los Angeles and the Watts Rebellion;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NBCSL urges recognition of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science as a Historically Black College and University by the National Trust for Historic Preservation;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NBCSL recognizes the need to have far more Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the western United States, and that the addition of new institutions should not mean that more institutions fight over the same allocation of funding, but rather that federal funding should be expanded with the number of institutions as HBCU’s have been able to do so much with their current limited funding; 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 Unites States, members of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, and other federal and state government officials and agencies as appropriate.

SPONSOR: Senator Steven Bradford (CA)
Committee of Jurisdiction: Education Policy Committee
Certified by Committee Co-Chairs: Representative Rufus Straughter (MS) and Representative Sheryl Williams-Stapleton (NM)
Ratified in Plenary Session: Ratification Date is December 6, 2019
Ratification is certified by: Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter (SC), President

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Resolution EDU-20-28

A RESOLUTION ON FAIR TREATMENT OF STUDENT DEBT

WHEREAS, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators seeks to educate and empower its members as they consider questions of public policy which impact, directly or indirectly, the “general welfare” of African American constituents within their respective jurisdictions;

WHEREAS, over 45 million people in the United States collectively owe more than $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, making it the second highest form of consumer debt, behind only home mortgages and higher than credit card debt and auto loan debt;

WHEREAS, recent federal data demonstrates that college completion is a necessary but insufficient solution to inequality challenges, and according to the Center for American Progress analysis, our federal student loan system provides African American borrowers only a 50-50 shot for successfully completing college;

WHEREAS, in 2016 the Urban Institute found that 42% of African American families have student debt compared with 34% of similar white families;

WHEREAS, the average debt for African American bachelor’s degree recipients was $34,000 compared to just $30,000 for White bachelor’s recipients, and just under $25,000 for Hispanic and Asian bachelor’s degree recipients with student loans;

WHEREAS, African American students who complete a bachelor’s degree are more likely to struggle to repay their loans, and among those who entered college in 2003, 12 years later the typical African American borrower who completed a bachelor’s degree owed 114% of what they originally borrowed, compared to 47% for white graduates who borrowed for their education, and 49% of African American students who borrowed for their undergraduate education defaulted on a federal student loan, representing the highest default of all borrowers;

WHEREAS, the burden of student debt is compounded by existing and intersecting inequalities, women working full time with college degrees make 26% less than their male counterparts;

WHEREAS, women overall, and especially African American women are more likely to struggle with student loan debt and face even greater income disparity, 57% of Black women who were repaying loans reported that they were unable to meet essential expenses in the last year;

WHEREAS, the rate of homeownership, one of the most important ways to build wealth, has returned to fifty-year lows and the African American homeownership rate in 2019 is as low as it was when the Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968;

WHEREAS, research from the National Association of Realtors has demonstrated that student loans are leading to serious delays in home purchases, with average student loan borrower delaying the purchase of their first home by an average of seven years;

WHEREAS, student loan servicers are a critical link in determining whether borrowers will have a pathway towards paying off their debt or simply be continually rolled into one unaffordable payment after another;

WHEREAS, without strong federal and state guidelines servicers have engaged in a range of abusive practices that include misapplying student loan payments in ways which maximize fees to the servicer and placing borrowers into plans that delay the debt rather than repay it;

WHEREAS, the U.S. Department of Education has recently signaled that it is willing to make it easier for servicers of federal student loan debt to operate with less oversight and fewer protections for students, both by rolling back existing federal guidance and by seeking to thwart states’ right to protect students in their own states against student loan abuses; and

WHEREAS, several states have already begun to take legislative and enforcement actions related to unfair and deceptive practices of student loan servicers.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL) urge the United States Congress to recognize outstanding student debt as a crisis that endangers not only the well-being of African Americans, but the nation at large, and to work to find enact legislation that will ease the burden of student on current student loan borrowers;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the NBCSL will urge its members to enact legislation in their respective states aimed at ensuring that students are treated fairly by student loan servicers when trying to repay their debt, and that such legislation should set standards for student loan servicers and end unfair and deceptive practices;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the NBCSL affirms the position of state attorneys general, that states have the right to license and regulate the student loan servicers operating in their state;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the NBCSL will urge its members to fully fund public higher education in their respective states, ensuring that the highest quality education is both affordable and accessible to students who wish to pursue it, and that such funding should prioritize addressing and resolving historic inequalities that have denied African Americans full access to higher education;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the NBCSL will urge its members to use their power to ease and develop innovative solutions for student debt held by states, either by state agencies that serve as guarantors for Federal Family Education Loans or student loans that are solely issued by the states; and

SPONSOR: Senator Ronald L. Rice (NJ)
Committee of Jurisdiction: Education Policy Committee
Certified by Committee Co-Chairs: Representative Rufus Straughter (MS) and Representative Sheryl Williams-Stapleton (NM)
Ratified in Plenary Session: Ratification Date is December 6, 2019
Ratification is certified by: Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter (SC), President

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Resolution EDU-20-53

A RESOLUTION ON MAKING COMMUNITY COLLEGE FREE

WHEREAS, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) have identified 1,132 community colleges in the United States and 980 are public colleges;

WHEREAS, nearly half of all undergraduates in the United States just over 13 million (25% of all graduates) enroll in community colleges and 5.7 of them in public community colleges;

WHEREAS, 6,000 students from 10 community colleges in California, Michigan, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming, responding to a recent North Carolina State University Research team identified the top two reasons they find it difficult to complete community college tied at 34% each, having to work and not being able to afford the expense;

WHEREAS, in 1965 the average public college tuition was $256 annually and today the average annual public community college tuition has risen to $3,347;

WHEREAS, individuals earning at least a 2-year community college degree will earn nearly $400,000 more over their career than a person with a high school diploma;

WHEREAS, 44 million people in this nation are currently in $1.48 trillion debt and attending a community college could cut down on cost and indebtedness even for those choosing to transfer credits to a 4-year institution;

WHEREAS, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics released its publication citing some of the highest paying jobs in the United States will increase over the decade and will require at least a 2-year college degree;

WHEREAS, economies once built on low skilled industries, specifically in the South, must now compete globally for jobs that require training beyond high school;

WHEREAS, in 1944 US Congress passed the G.I. Bill which provided free higher education to millions of World War II veterans and was the most successful legislation in modern history laying the groundwork for the post war economic boom and growth of the middle class;

WHEREAS, the state of California did not begin to charge for a college education until the 1980s; and

WHEREAS, twenty states offer various forms of free community college , Arkansas, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky Maryland, Minnesota, Memphis, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, West Virginia and Washington.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL) support and request that all municipalities and states governments provide community college education at no cost;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NBCSL urges the Congress to pass legislation requiring all states to make community college free and to provide the necessary supportive funding to assure its reality;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NBCSL recognizes the increased burden this will place on our educational system and further urges that two years at a public University or College, should be subsidized at a similar rate to a local community college;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NBCSL also recognizes the effect that this could have on Historically Black Colleges and Universities as a disproportionate share of the students struggle economically, as such to preserve the heritage and history of these culturally significant educational institutions, we must also increase funding to these institutions to support their scholarship funds to maintain necessary enrollment; 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 Unites States, members of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, other federal and state government officials, and agencies as appropriate.

SPONSOR: Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter (SC)
Committee of Jurisdiction: Education Policy Committee
Certified by Committee Co-Chairs: Representative Rufus Straughter (MS) and Representative Sheryl Williams-Stapleton (NM)
Ratified in Plenary Session: Ratification Date is December 6, 2019
Ratification is certified by: Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter (SC), President

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