FACT SHEET: President Biden and Vice President Harris Announce New Actions and Investments to Advance Educational and Economic Opportunity for Latino Communities Across the Country

Today, President Biden will ceremonially sign Executive Order (EO) 14124, establishing the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity Through Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), alongside nearly two dozen champions for these institutions and Latino communities. President Biden and Vice President Harris will also announce nearly $19 million in transformational investments for five HSIs in Florida, Illinois, Texas, and Puerto Rico to build research infrastructure. These efforts build on the Administration's historic investment of over $16 billion in more than 500 HSIs across 30 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico that educate more than 4.7 million students annually.

Over the past three years, President Biden and Vice President Harris have taken historic actions to expand opportunity for Latino families and communities, including: creating more than 15 million jobs – with 5 million created for Latinos, helping Latino entrepreneurs start new businesses at the fastest rate in over 10 years, addressing our broken immigration system, and working to ensure equitable educational opportunity for students.

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing new actions to advance educational opportunities for students at HSIs and giving them a fair shot at achieving the American dream.

Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity through HSIs

With student enrollment that is at least one-quarter Latino, HSIs are engines of economic mobility, propelling high numbers of students from low-income backgrounds and first-generation college students into good jobs and brighter futures. Today, President Biden will ceremonially sign EO 14124 to strengthen the Federal Government's commitment to advancing opportunity for HSIs and the students they serve.

The EO creates a new Initiative and first-ever President's Board of Advisors on HSIs to:

• Increase awareness of opportunities for HSIs to equally participate in Federal programs and enhance the capacity of HSIs to meet the educational needs of their students.
• Identify best practices for HSIs to scale effective strategies, programs, and initiatives to support the educational success and economic mobility of their students.
• Improve the ability of HSIs to align program offerings with the economic needs of the Nation and their local economies, especially in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and teaching.
• Coordinate efforts to help HSIs become or remain fiscally secure institutions.
• Foster cross-sector collaboration among HSIs and philanthropic, public, and private sector organizations.
• Strengthen Federal recruitment activities at HSIs to build accessible and equal pathways into Federal career opportunities for HSI students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
• Provide tools, data, and analytics to support HSIs in improving educational equity, excellence, and economic opportunity for students.

Investing Additional $19 Million in Research Infrastructure at HSIs

To remain the most competitive economy in the world, the Nation's most inclusive institutions of higher education must continue to lead in research and development. Yet too many HSIs report having unmet infrastructure needs that hold back their ability to engage in research that will propel forward these institutions, their students, and the nation as a whole.

To help address these needs, the Biden-Harris Administration established the Department of Education's Research and Development Infrastructure Program (RDI) for the colleges and universities that play a central role in educating students from diverse backgrounds. The program provides funds to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs)—including HSIs— to implement transformational investments in research infrastructure, including research productivity, faculty expertise, graduate programs, physical infrastructure, human capital development, and partnerships leading to increases in external funding.

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced nearly $19 million in new grants to five HSIs to build their research and physical infrastructure including—

• Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida received $1.1 million.
• National Louis University in Chicago, Illinois received $3 million.
• Sam Houston State University in Houston, Texas received $5 million.
• Texas A&M University Corpus Christi in Corpus Christi, Texas received $4.7 million.
• University of Puerto Rico on the Rio Piedras Campus received $5 million.

The $19 million in grants to HSIs was a part of $49 million in RDI grants to 13 HBCUs, TCCUs, and MSIs.

Building on Historic Investments in HSIs

Today's announcements build on President Biden and Vice President Harris' historic investments of over $16 billion in direct funding to HSIs, including through COVID relief funds and the Department of Education's federal grant program funds.

The chart below provides a state-by-state breakdown of funding to date.