What Has André Carson Done For HBCU Students and Higher Education Access?

Martin University Closed. The Broader Fight For Black Students in Indianapolis Has Been Missing.

Wednesday, April 29

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Indianapolis, IN — Martin University is gone.

 

Indiana's only Historically Black College or University serving adult learners closed its doors on December 31, 2025. The story of that closure—the warning signs ignored, the statement issued six days before the end, the emergency funding never pursued—has already been told in this series.

 

But Martin University's closure is not just a story about one institution. It’s a symptom of a broader failure to fight for Black students in Indianapolis who need pathways to higher education and have been systematically denied them.

 

HBCUs are not just colleges. They’re institutions that exist because the rest of higher education refused to open its doors. They serve students who are first-generation, low-income, and disproportionately likely to face every barrier the system can construct between a person and a degree. They produce a disproportionate share of Black professionals in medicine, law, engineering, education, and public service. They are, in the most direct sense, infrastructure for Black economic mobility — and they are chronically underfunded relative to predominantly white institutions with comparable or smaller missions.

 

Federal HBCU funding has been a persistent fight in Congress for decades. Title III of the Higher Education Act—the primary federal funding stream for HBCUs—has never been fully funded. Competitive grant programs that should be accessible to HBCU students are frequently designed in ways that disadvantage smaller institutions with fewer administrative resources to navigate complex applications. The federal student loan system places disproportionate burden on the students most likely to attend HBCUs, Black students from low-income families who borrow more and earn less in the years immediately following graduation.

 

André Carson has represented a district with a significant Black population for 18 years. He sits in an institution with direct jurisdiction over Title III funding, Pell Grant expansion, student loan policy, and every federal lever that affects whether Black students in Indianapolis can access and complete higher education.

 

No legislation bearing his name has addressed these structural barriers. No sustained advocacy campaign has made HBCU funding a defining public fight of his tenure. No comprehensive strategy connecting Indianapolis's Black students to federal education resources, HBCU pathways, and workforce development pipelines has emerged from his office.

 

Beyond HBCUs, the broader question of higher education access in Indianapolis demands a federal champion. College completion rates among low-income and first-generation students in Marion County lag behind national averages. Pell Grant purchasing power has declined dramatically over the past two decades, covering a smaller share of college costs than at any point in the program's history. Student debt has become a crushing burden for a generation of Indianapolis graduates who did everything right and still cannot get ahead.

 

These are federal policy failures that a member of Congress with 18 years of seniority has the tools to fight. That fight has not been waged with the urgency these students deserve.

 

Martin University's closure was not inevitable. The broader crisis of higher education access for Black students in Indianapolis isn’t inevitable. What’s been missing is a congressman who treats these students' futures as a personal mission and who shows up for the fight before the institution closes, not after.

 

"Martin University closing was a tragedy," Hornedo said. "But it was also a symptom. The broader fight for Black students in Indianapolis—for HBCU funding, for Pell Grant expansion, for the federal investment that makes higher education accessible rather than aspirational—that fight has been missing from this congressional office for 18 years. Black students in Indianapolis deserve a congressman who treats their futures as urgent. Who fights for the institutions that serve them before they close. Who uses every federal tool available to make sure that a degree is within reach for every student in this district who wants one."

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This is part of the Hornedo campaign's daily accountability series, What Has André Carson Done?, running through May 1st. Learn more at georgehornedo.com.

 

Indianapolis deserves more than a vote in Washington. It deserves a congressman who uses the full platform of the office to fight for federal resources, to force the conversation at every level of government, and to show up for this community before the cameras arrive. That's the standard. That's what's been missing.

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RECORD CHECK: The Center for Effective Lawmaking ranks Congressman Carson 197th out of 220 House Democrats in legislative effectiveness. Of his claimed 22 bills signed into law, 2 are standalone enacted bills—the Ariel Rios Federal Building naming and the Kennedy-King National Commemorative Site Act. 

 

73% of Congressman Carson's campaign funding comes from PACs, much of it from corporate PACs including AES Indiana, BlackRock, and defense contractors. Only 7% comes from small-dollar donors.

 

When Julia Carson held this seat, Indianapolis was a competitive Democratic stronghold that helped power statewide wins. Under André Carson, the 7th Congressional District has become the worst in Indiana for voter turnout and Democrats haven't won statewide since 2012.