Another few things right. Stealth agenda though not much in monetary terms. Michele Obama and Tiki Barber cooperating on Movement something, akin to JFK's school exercise program(partially just another image fix since he was always a sickly boy!), and subsidies to put better quality food into poor neighborhoods and work on obesity and diabetes2. Then there is some money for historically black colleges, as the rest of education is being trimmed at state, county and municipal level as we go into a new middle age dark age.
-Bob http://www.blackcommentator.com/366/366_aal_obama_hbcu_spending.php [Just in Time: Obama Targets HBCUs for Increased Spending - African American Leadership By Dr. Ron Walters, PhD, BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board] Just In Time Obama Targets HBSU's for increased spending by Dr. Ron Walters, PhD Blackcommentator.com Editorial Board As the proud graduate of an Historically Black University and having worked in one for most of my academic career, I approve of President Barack Obama having broken his pledge not to govern by race or ethnicity just in time to increase spending for HBCUs. These institutions are still vitally relevant to the production of a black middle class because, while they only constitute 3% of all institutions of higher education, they graduate 20% of all black undergrads. Announcing current increases in the FY 2012 Federal Budget was Dr. John S. Wilson, the new Executive Director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs, who said that the President's budget includes a $17 billion increase in Pell Grants, $400 million of which was earmarked for HBCUs. Last year, there was an uproar when it was discovered that the President took $85 million from the HBCU budget, but this year, rather than mandating it for two years as the Bush administration had done, this sum is included in the President Obama's budget for 10 years. There is also $98 million in new money proposed for HBCUs that would fund such things as financing for capital costs like the repair and replacement of educational facilities and equipment, and the building of physical infrastructure. There is also a proposed $65.4 million for the enhancement of graduate programs. One of the greatest areas of lack of growth in the federal budget however, has been in the funds generated by the government which goes to research at institutions of higher education. Some of it, in the areas of energy, defense, or agriculture, requires sophisticated engineering or scientific research facilities that most of these institutions do not have, but other grants in the social, administrative, and economic areas should be achievable. This funding increase is also welcome news in light of the current economic crisis that threatens to continue the laggard growth of the black middle class. The unemployment and home foreclosure crises put at severe risk the kind of capital that has enabled black families to fund college enrollment in the previous generation and so many in this generation have a far more difficult time acquiring enrollment, remaining enrolled and potentially graduating. While some observers have been focused on academic performance as the major factor in black college retention rates, economic factors have always been as important. The general increase in higher education funding will help those in non-HBCU institutions as well. The other shoe to drop has been the fact that most black youths are in state supported institutions, either four-year institutions or community colleges, and state governments have chosen to cut education budgets deeply to balance their budgets. This has caused a rise in the tuition rates, teacher furloughs and curriculum reductions at many institutions. In most states, the education budget is the largest funded item and cuts in places such as California have recently drawn very visible protests from students and faculty. Federal funds given to states from the bank bailout (TARP) have disproportionately gone to support K-12, such that while the latter has suffered a 3% decrease in funding in California, higher education has suffered a 5% decrease. While states are grappling for solutions to the problem of overall education funding, I would suggest they should look at the amount of spending involved in holding non-violent offenders in prisons. Some states are now beginning to look at alternatives to incarceration more seriously than when they were just theoretical possibilities and some are actually letting prisoners go. <http://www.blackcommentator.com/free_sign_up.html> The State of California is typical of many where funding for the prison system has now overshadowed funding on education, a situation that is not sustainable in terms of future economic development of the State or balancing its budget. While the Governor says that now California spends 10% on prisons and 7% on higher education, the most alarming trend is that higher education spending has been declining since the tax limitation wars of the 1970s. It is time to break out of Republican-think about taxes and raise some revenue to fund higher education so that localities are not as dependent upon the Federal government. Meanwhile, Mr. President, thanks for the help for HBCUs in this crisis. BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member, Dr. Ron Walters,PhD is a Political Analyst, Author and Professor Emeritus of the University of Maryland, College Park. His latest book is: The Price of Racial Reconciliation (The Politics of Race and Ethnicity) <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0472115308?ie=UTF8&tag=blackcommenta-2\ 0&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=0472115308> (University of Michigan Press). Click here <http://www.blackcommentator.com/contact_forms/rwalters/contact.php> to contact Dr. Walters. --- In cia-drugs@yahoogroups.com, "muckblit" <muckb...@...> wrote: Obama told the Supreme court justices they were wrong to lift limits on corporate campaign spending. Biden showed up an hour and a half late for dinner in Israel after strenuously objecting to Israeli large scale planning for settlements in East Jerusalem. Obama's two trillion was spent by Bush, and Obama gave a blank check for military spending, possibly under some delusion that "war is good for the economy". Other than that, if he hadn't completely played out his foreign policy hand there, he could circumvent Congress in foreign policy. Too bad. Game over. Biden makes a gesture. Haiti? Obama blew it in his Ghana speech. Hil did it right in Congo,"cell phone genocide" for tantalum and tungsten. Nigeria? Nigerian military stood by and watched the massacres like Indonesian troops passing hand grenades to muslim paramilitaries there in 1990's. Unacceptable. Not big enough to invite AFRICOM-Stuttgart ice brigade, so you could hardly blow it there, O. Maybe Biden should make a stop in Nigeria. Hil and Biden are speaking in uppity, simple, non-corporatist terms. Forget AFRICOM as security for loans for genmod terminator seeds, and make human sense. Send It Back FROM Africa, like the Liberians finally sent back 19th century US plantation in 2004, and all Africa unanimously is sending AFRICOM globalist security coup cadre back to Stuttgart! US Congress is still sending plantation out, send it back FROM Africa. Don't actually send Marburg and ST313 back, but send the truth of US biowar atrocities and First World toxic and radioactive dumping off Somalia and USN piracy and Rev. Pat Robertson and War Seller cannibalism back FROM Africa. Be careful handling US cannibals; they want to require private health insurance without price controls or single payer public option. -Bob
