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Sound the alarm. If the HBCU’s will not respond to the black community needs then we have no choice but to stop support and decrease funding.

It’s that time of the year again. Colleges, Universities and institutions of higher learning are eager to publish the racial breakdowns of enrollment rates.  Doting on how minority enrollment rates continue to increase especially in the Ivy League.

According to Harvard College admission statistics 11% of their admitted enrollments for the class of 2017 are African-American.  Least we forget Harvard admission policy changed in 2007 when the Supreme Court ruled admission policies which take into account race are unconstitutional, forcing the school to admit students they would have otherwise rejected.  The previous year in 2006 the African-American admission rate at Harvard was 8.9% and rose to 10.2% after the Supreme Court ruling, a meager 1.3% increase.

According to the numbers, Harvard struggles to maintain African-American enrollment even today.  Meanwhile HBCU’s have a direct connection to our communities which still remain in confusion and poverty and we continue to support them even though we can least afford too.

The Ivy League schools produce job creators and the HBCU’s are still using the operational plan from 1890 to act as feeder programs and produce job seekers for the Ivy League job creators.  If no one has noticed the job market has more job seekers than jobs.  I liken the HBCU’s to machines which continue to produce a product no one is buying.  A complete waste of resources.

I am exercising my right to an opinion so in turn I will stick to my hard fast rule on stating a solution in tandem.  First, there is a need to increase the awareness of education reform for our hire learning institutions across the board. Today when we talk reform it is mostly regarding our primary and secondary education systems but a focus on post-secondary education where more students are active participants in their own future could lead to back door success in the primary and secondary schools.  I am not saying we should concentrate on post-secondary education exclusively but let us start including this topic in the conversations and legislation for education reform.

Second, HBCU’s and other post-secondary providers should institute a minimum amount of 30 % core/major course work that target small business ideals, job creation and entrepreneurship.  These subjects are too valuable to gloss over or bury inside of other course work. They must have their own curriculums and credit hour standards.  The ultimate goal is that a nurse or a fireman or a writer think in terms of job creation and not job seeking to pay school debt or create a future free of debt and financial limitations.

As I write this opinion the last scene of a classic Spike Lee Joint, “School Daze” is playing in my mind. The scene set on a fictitious HBC campus. The leading character, Dap is walking across the court yard like a man on a mission, he rings the bell and it sounds off like an alarm.  As an audience member and fan of film, I realize he is about to break the fourth wall. It is apparent the bell is not ringing to remind us of the top of the hour but to, “Wake Up!”

Source(s)

http://ivysuccess.com/harvard_2007.html