Depriving the institutions that serve our most vulnerable college students of the resources made available to predominantly white 4 year universities is contrary to our values and the best interest as a Nation.

We are certainly not all born into the same environment but that difference of initial circumstance should not mean that we shouldn't all have an equal opportunity to succeed.

Congress has a responsibility to strengthen and invest in institutions that are promoting economic mobility as we continue to work toward a reauthorization of key Federal higher education policy.

Congress really can't expect institutions to continue disproportionately serving vulnerable students while simultaneously fighting to receive the vital funding.

We need them for our future and we all have to buy into that notion.

HBCUs make up less than 3 percent of colleges and universities yet produce almost 20 percent of all Black graduates.

It is important that we get it right so that all students can achieve a better life for them and their families.

So we have to continue as we work to reauthorize the Higher Education Act committee to supporting these institutions that are really resource strapped but on the front lines of our effort to provide Americans with equal access to higher…

We need to be striving, on both sides of the aisle, for new ideas that will increase opportunities for all American students, regardless of circumstance, and support their efforts to succeed and prosper.

Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) were developed as part of a political and social movement to regain Tribal autonomy and to combat centuries of forced assimilation and destruction of Native communities.

This is particularly true for low-income students and students of color whose educational and work force opportunities have historically been limited by intergenerational poverty and systemic racism.

I wonder if you could talk a little bit more about the $380 million of HAVA funds that--I guess with the grant expenditure report, there were certainly a number of questions of whether that should have been spent more quickly.