Harris proposes $60B investment in historically black colleges

Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif.), one of the Democrats seeking the party’s 2020 presidential nomination, will unveil a plan Friday to invest billions in historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), as well as on entrepreneurship programs targeted towards the black community.

Reuters and Bloomberg News reported that Harris will unveil the plans during a speech to the National Urban League conference in Indianapolis.

{mosads}“By taking these challenges on, we don’t just move black America forward, we move all of America forward,” the California senator will say during the speech, according to Reuters.

If passed, Harris’s plan would provide $10 billion to be used for infrastructure at HBCUs and $50 billion for scholarship and curriculum funding, with $12 billion of that set aside for out-of-college programs centered around business ownership.

Her plan’s announcement comes days before the Democratic presidential candidates are set to meet onstage again for the second of a dozen Democratic primary debates.

At the last debate in June, Harris clashed with front-runner former Vice President Joe Biden over his comments about working with segregationist senators, and saw an uptick in polling afterwards.

Fellow 2020 rival Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) previously unveiled a plan to provide $50 billion to HBCUs in an op-ed for Blavity in May.

“My plan will address the historical injustices in American education and ensure that opportunities are fairly available to everyone,” Warren wrote at the time.