In Trump budget, black colleges would escape hits that other education programs would take

As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump promised to ensure funding for historic black colleges and universities, or HBCUs.

In his fiscal year 2019 budget proposal, Trump preserved level funding for HBCUs, which was better than other higher education recipients of federal funding. Overall, the Education Department would see a 10.5 percent cut.

The Thurgood Marshall College Fund, an advocate for HBCUs, said told us the group is "appreciative" of the level funding request, but it also said it was "concerned" about other cuts that "could have a detrimental impact on our students' ability to persist and graduate from HBCUs."

The group cited risks to funding for the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program and the Federal Work-Study program.

Separately, the spending agreement passed by Congress and signed by the president included debt forgiveness for four HBCU campuses that experienced significant damage from Hurricane Katrina. "The decision to relieve these institutions of this significant debt obligation will allow them to focus their efforts exclusively on their missions of educating students and serving their respective communities," said Paris Dennard, the senior director of strategic communications for the Marshall fund.

As for the part of the promise about vocational education, the budget maintains $1.1 billion in funding for career and technical education.

Trump's budget proposal sticks to his promise to ensure funding for HBCUs and trade and vocational education, but it is only a non-binding wish list.

For now, we rate the promise In the Works.