The Trump administration said it will redirect $435 million to historically Black colleges and universities and tribal campuses as it defunds grant programs for other minority students at other institutions.

On Monday, the Department of Education also announced it will invest more than $160 million in American history and civics education programs. The department said it also plans to award grants totaling $500 million for charter schools.

This week’s announcement comes less than a week after the department said it will end approximately $350 million in discretionary funding to several minority-serving institutions that “discriminate by conferring government benefits exclusively to institutions that meet racial or ethnic quotas.”

Among institutions defunded are Hispanic-serving institutions and predominantly Black institutions, which are different from HBCUs. HBCUs are colleges and universities founded before 1964 with the intention to serve Black communities. PBIs are campuses with about half the student body identifying as Black or African American, such as Chicago State University, Georgia State University, and the Community College of Philadelphia. 

The department called the minority-serving institutions’ programs “ineffective and discriminatory” in the first release. On Monday, the DOE credited HBCUs for targeting resources toward the most effective interventions to bolster educational outcomes, mirroring past statements made by President Donald Trump in his support for Black colleges. 

The department did not immediately respond to Capital B’s request for comment on further details about the funds.  

The funds, which are Title III, will support both public and private Black colleges. Under the Higher Education Title III funding, HBCUs will benefit from federal funding to serve low-income students. 

The types of programs funded under Title III include maintenance and construction projects, the establishment of endowment funds, and the provision of low-cost loans and grant-based awards. 

“The department has carefully scrutinized our federal grants, ensuring that taxpayers are not funding racially discriminatory programs but those programs which promote merit and excellence in education,” said Linda McMahon, the U.S. Secretary of Education. 

In April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that recognizes HBCUs and pledges his administration’s support. 

“This order will continue the work begun during my first administration to elevate the value and impact of our nation’s HBCUs as beacons of educational excellence and economic opportunity that serve as some of the best cultivators of tomorrow’s leaders in business, government, academia, and the military,” Trump said in order. 

In total, HBCUs will receive more than $1.34 billion and tribally controlled colleges and universities will receive more than $108 million from the department for fiscal year 2025, according to the DOE. 

During his first term, Trump signed the FUTURE Act into law, which permanently provides more than $255 million a year to HBCUs, according to a White House Fact Sheet about Trump’s commitment to Black colleges. 

Although there is no specific breakdown of the Biden-Harris administration’s allocation to HBCUs by year, the administration announced in 2024 that it had set a record for investing over $17 billion between fiscal years 2021 and September 2024. 

The United Negro College Fund said it supports the reprogramming of the funds in a statement, but did not address the other programs that are losing funding. 

“We are grateful to have worked with the Trump administration, Secretary McMahon, and her Department of Education team in achieving this one-time infusion of grant funding,” said Lodriguez V. Murray, UNCF’s senior vice president for public policy and government affairs.