Every single congressional Republican in North Carolina voted against critical funding for the state’s colleges and universities in the American Rescue Plan one year ago this week

Ahead of Friday’s one year anniversary of President Joe Biden signing the American Rescue Plan into law, new data from the Department of Education shows that North Carolina received $1.3 billion in critical funding for the state’s colleges and universities – no thanks to a single Republican member of North Carolina’s congressional delegation, which unanimously voted against the relief law.

According to the Department of Education, examples of key investments in North Carolina higher education from the American Rescue Plan include:

• $432 million for community colleges
• Over $307 million for 10 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
• Over $55 million for 8 Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), which include Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Predominantly Black Institutions, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions, Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions, and Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions.

“Now more than ever, it is critical that we invest in North Carolina’s higher education system to give our students a leg up on a better future,” said North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Bobbie Richardson. “President Biden’s and Democrats’ American Rescue Plan did just that and, one year later, North Carolinians should remember that every Republican in our congressional delegation voted ‘no’ on setting North Carolina students up for success.”

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