Post by captaggie on Dec 1, 2008 19:06:54 GMT -5
www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/12/01/historical_black_colleges.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab
Republican Seth Harp wants to save money by putting them with white-majority schools
By JAMES SALZER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday, December 01, 2008
The chairman of the state Senate Higher Education Committee told University System leaders they should consider merging two of the state’s three historically black colleges with nearby white-majority schools to save money.
With the state looking to cut spending up to 10 percent this year because of the economic slowdown, Senate Higher Education Chairman Seth Harp (R-Midland) suggested historically black college Savannah State University be merged with Armstrong Atlantic University in Savannah, and black college Albany State be merged with Darton College in Albany.
Harp said the separate schools were set up during a time when whites didn’t want to go to school with blacks and education was segregated in Georgia.
“The white schools were begun as segregation schools. It’s time Georgia closed that ugly chapter,” Harp said during a budget hearing on the University System’s budget Monday.
Any decision to merge the schools would have to be made by the University System’s Board of Regents. The system receives about $2.3 billion in annual state funding, but the governing body makes decisions about the system’s 35 schools.
System Chancellor Erroll Davis said merging historically black colleges is more than an economic issue because the schools have a long history of providing education to African-Americans in Georgia. The idea would probably face strong opposition from supporters of historically black colleges nationally.
“I would need some political sense (from lawmakers) that there is support for that,” Davis said.
Harp responded, “A 10 percent cut may be an incentive to do that.”
The third historically black college in the state, Fort Valley State, is probably located too far from any other University System school to be a candidate for merger.
Republican Seth Harp wants to save money by putting them with white-majority schools
By JAMES SALZER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday, December 01, 2008
The chairman of the state Senate Higher Education Committee told University System leaders they should consider merging two of the state’s three historically black colleges with nearby white-majority schools to save money.
With the state looking to cut spending up to 10 percent this year because of the economic slowdown, Senate Higher Education Chairman Seth Harp (R-Midland) suggested historically black college Savannah State University be merged with Armstrong Atlantic University in Savannah, and black college Albany State be merged with Darton College in Albany.
Harp said the separate schools were set up during a time when whites didn’t want to go to school with blacks and education was segregated in Georgia.
“The white schools were begun as segregation schools. It’s time Georgia closed that ugly chapter,” Harp said during a budget hearing on the University System’s budget Monday.
Any decision to merge the schools would have to be made by the University System’s Board of Regents. The system receives about $2.3 billion in annual state funding, but the governing body makes decisions about the system’s 35 schools.
System Chancellor Erroll Davis said merging historically black colleges is more than an economic issue because the schools have a long history of providing education to African-Americans in Georgia. The idea would probably face strong opposition from supporters of historically black colleges nationally.
“I would need some political sense (from lawmakers) that there is support for that,” Davis said.
Harp responded, “A 10 percent cut may be an incentive to do that.”
The third historically black college in the state, Fort Valley State, is probably located too far from any other University System school to be a candidate for merger.
