A new report from the Association for Public and Land-Grant Universities is titled Land-Grant but Unequal. Focusing on the funding for the HBCUs covered under the Second Morrill Act of 1890, the report offers the following conclusions:

“From 2010-2012, 61 percent of 1890 land-grant institutions did not receive 100 percent of the one-to-one-matching funds from their respective states for extension or research funding.

“Between 2010-2012, 1890 land-grant universities did not receive more than $31 million in extension funding due to states not meeting the one-to-one match requirement.

“From 2010-2012, 1890 land-grant universities did not receive more than $25 million in research funding due to states not meeting the one-to-one match requirement.

“Combined, 1890 land-grant universities did not receive almost $57 million due to states not meeting the one-to-one match.”

States ignoring their fiscal commitments has too often been redefined by political leaders as exercising fiscal responsibility, but what that ready rationalization has generally meant is that the funding has simply been redirected to other places more aligned with their own political priorities. Likewise, the fiscal problems exacerbated by the under-funding have typically been reframed as fiscal mismanagement.

And the media has often been complicit in letting this sort of politically self-serving messaging go unchallenged.

The full report is available at: http://www.aplu.org/library/land-grant-but-unequal-state-one-to-one-match-funding-for-1890-land-grant-universities/file