Missouri State Representative LaKeySha Bosley introduced House Bill 3416 in early April, and the Missouri House Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee has since taken up the measure. The bill would establish a dedicated “Strengthening HBCUs Fund,” drawing 1 percent of the state’s excursion gambling proceeds, approximately $3.3 million, and an additional 1 percent from the Classroom Trust Fund, another $3.3 million, along with any private gifts and donations. Those combined resources would be split between the state’s only two historically Black colleges and universities: Lincoln University of Missouri in Jefferson City and Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis.
Bosley, a Democrat representing Missouri House District 79, said during the committee hearing that the legislation would allow both institutions to prioritize infrastructure investment. The bill arrives at a moment when both universities are navigating enrollment growth alongside the threat of significant state funding reductions from a separate legislative proposal that would overhaul how Missouri distributes higher education dollars based on full-time enrollment figures.
What Each Institution Stands to Gain and Lose
Lincoln University has led Missouri in enrollment growth for the past two consecutive years. The university’s president, John Moseley, told lawmakers that the institution is approaching the limits of its on-campus housing capacity and that identifying flexible funding over the next several years would be critical to expanding its ability to serve students. Under the separate Senate spending proposal, Lincoln could lose approximately $10 million in core funding annually.
Harris-Stowe State University faces a steeper proportional cut. The university’s president, LaTonia Collins Smith, has stated publicly that the enrollment-based formula would cost Harris-Stowe roughly $5 million per year, representing at least 40 percent of its state funding. Collins Smith has said that raising tuition to compensate would directly undermine the university’s mission of providing affordable access, raising larger questions about the institution’s long-term financial viability under that scenario.
The Strengthening HBCUs Fund, if passed, would provide a dedicated and legally protected revenue channel outside the general appropriations process, meaning its allocation would not fluctuate with the kind of political and budgetary pressures currently threatening both institutions’ core funding.
The Broader Funding Gap These Institutions Carry
The funding challenge at Lincoln and Harris-Stowe reflects a documented national pattern. The U.S. Departments of Education and Agriculture, using data from the National Center for Education Statistics, found that 16 states underfunded their historically Black land-grant universities by between $172 million and $2.1 billion per institution between 1987 and 2020, in violation of the Second Morrill Act of 1890, which requires states to distribute funding equitably across all land-grant institutions. Lincoln University is a land-grant institution.
The Hunt Institute, a nonprofit education policy organization, found that HBCUs receive less than 1 percent of the approximately $60 billion in federal research and development expenditures allocated to colleges and universities annually, despite their documented role in producing graduates in STEM fields and supporting upward economic mobility in the communities they serve.
That combination of suppressed state appropriations and minimal research funding has left many HBCUs managing deferred infrastructure needs while absorbing demand for expanded academic programming and student services. For Lincoln, that means housing. For Harris-Stowe, it means maintaining tuition levels low enough to serve a student body where 81 percent of enrolled students receive federal Pell Grants, a measure of demonstrated financial need.
How the Gambling Revenue Mechanism Works
Missouri’s excursion gambling proceeds are generated through a tax on casino gaming losses. The revenue currently flows into the state’s education funding formula, which supports K-12 schools. The Classroom Trust Fund, the second revenue source named in House Bill 3416, is similarly tied to lottery proceeds. Redirecting 1 percent from each source for HBCU support would not eliminate those institutions’ existing obligations under the formula but would carve out a dedicated stream specifically for Lincoln and Harris-Stowe.
The bill has not yet cleared committee and faces a broader legislative environment in which Missouri’s overall education budget is under pressure. The Missouri Senate recently approved a K-12 spending plan that dips into Capitol renovation reserves after projections for lottery and casino revenue came in lower than expected, according to reporting by the Missouri Independent. That fiscal uncertainty adds context to the debate over whether gambling proceeds represent a stable long-term funding base for higher education.
What Passage Would and Would Not Resolve
House Bill 3416, if enacted, would represent the first dedicated, protected funding stream for Missouri’s HBCUs outside the general appropriations process. The approximately $6.6 million in annual combined revenue would support infrastructure investment and give both institutions a resource that is less exposed to the year-to-year volatility of state budget negotiations.
The bill would not resolve the wider funding disparity carried by both institutions. It would not offset the potential $10 million loss Lincoln faces or the $5 million reduction Harris-Stowe is contesting under the separate spending formula. And it would not address the decades of per-student underfunding that federal data has documented at land-grant institutions like Lincoln.
What it would create is a floor, a protected base from which both universities could plan capital projects and program investments that have been deferred for years. Whether the legislature passes it, and whether the revenue projections hold, remains an open question as the bill moves through committee.
Sources: Jefferson City News-Tribune, Missouri Independent, Inside Higher Ed, KSDK, U.S. Departments of Education and Agriculture, National Center for Education Statistics, The Hunt Institute
