ATLANTA (AP) - Public colleges created during the segregation
era to provide blacks with an education are at the center of a
budget battle in Georgia.

A Republican state senator has proposed merging two of the
historically black schools with nearby predominantly white colleges
to save money. He says the mergers would erase a vestige of the Jim
Crow era.

The plan offered by Senator Seth Harp, chairman of the state
Senate's Higher Education Committee, has stirred a torrent of
opposition. Critics of the plan say students who might otherwise
not attend college are being educated at the schools.

And some experts say black students perform better in a
black-college setting.

The schools were mostly founded before 1964, generally in the
South. But they are open to people of all races and experts say the
number of white students at the campuses has been on the rise.

Harp's proposal would merge the historically black 3,400-student
Savannah State University with Armstrong Atlantic State University.
Albany State University, which has about 4,100 enrolled, would
combine with nearby Darton College, which also has a predominantly
white student body. The new campuses would keep the names of the
older and more established black colleges.

Harp's plan is preliminary with few details about how the
mergers would work.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)