A consortium of educators, students and others lambasted a bill, H.R.I, that was passed last month by the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. that, among other things, cuts funding to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other mostly minority serving institutions.

Major organizations, including the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO), the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), have all expressed outrage at the bills approved by the House in February, which would cut more than $350 million in aid to HBCUs and many minority students. "These proposed cuts represent not only a refusal to invest in thousands of deserving students, but a refusal to invest in the future of our economy," said Michael Lomax, president and CEO of UNCF.

He added, "By mid-century, the U.S. will be a majority-minority country and minorities will represent a majority of the U.S. population."

Under the measure, the popular Pell grant, which is the government's principal low-income financial aid program, would be slashed by nearly $900 per student – a sizable amount for a student loan debt-weary college student.

Raymar Hampshire, president of a Philadelphia-based philanthropic organization called Sponsorchange.org that helps college students earn payments towards their student loan debt in exchange for volunteer work, said the cuts will impact African-American students the most. "Cutting funding from HBCUs would be a catastrophic setback to the competitiveness of our country," Hampshire said in a recent interview with the AmNews. "This bill looks to also reduce affordability by cutting Pell grants and adding to the burden of student loan debt to graduates." Hampshire added that the bill also extends decreasing resources to volunteer-based programs like AmeriCorps. Similar to his organization, AmeriCorps offers partial educational student loan forgiveness through volunteer work.

Opponents of H.R.I said it's unlikely that the measure will be passed by the Senate, and President Barack Obama has already stated that he would veto any bill that would make significant funding cuts to education, specifically to HBCUs.

To view the complete H.R.I bill and UNCF's criticism of it, visit www.uncf.org.