Education Department programs that reward colleges for meeting racial quotas are unconstitutional, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel concluded this month.
The opinion came from a request by the Dept. of Ed. to review the legality of federal programs that “distinguish between beneficiaries based on race” in light of the Students for Fair Admissions Supreme Court decision.
“Many of these programs restrict award eligibility to educational institutions whose student bodies reflect a particular racial composition,” the DOJ report states. “The Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions program, for instance, is open only to educational institutions whose student bodies are 25 percent Hispanic or more.”
The report also names the “Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian-Serving institutions” as similarly problematic programs.
It also identifies other grants, including the “Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement program,” which favors non-white students.
This program can stand, but it must have “new, race-neutral regulations to facilitate federal financial support to institutions of higher education for projects covered by the statute,” the DOJ report stated. However, the program “must not consider—directly or indirectly—the race or ethnicity of project participants.”
Some programs likely cannot be saved, the Department of Justice wrote.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said she agreed with the findings.
“I agree with the Office of Legal Counsel opinion, which confirms that using race quotas and preferences to determine eligibility for federal education funding programs is unconstitutional,” she stated in a Dec. 19 news release. “We cannot, and must not, attach race-based conditions when allocating taxpayer funding.”
The report, McMahon said, “is another concrete step from the Trump Administration to put a stop to DEI in government and ensure taxpayer dollars support programs that advance merit and fairness in all aspects of Americans lives.”
The University of Hawaii system had a different reaction, sending out an “urgent update” as news broke of the report.
President Wendy Hensel called the decision, which could result in a loss of taxpayer funds to the system, “deeply disappointing.”
The university system is reviewing the decision and making contingency plans, President Hensel stated.
“Our Office of General Counsel is reviewing the full legal opinion and will coordinate closely with the State Attorney General’s office,” Hensel stated.
“We will maintain close communication with the State and our Congressional delegation to assess steps forward,” she said. “We are also continuing the work of evaluating the full scope of the impact on our campuses and programs and implementing contingency plans for the loss of funding.”
Some of the most prominent conservative civil rights advocates in the nation earlier this year had called on Congress to end Minority-Serving Institutions programs, calling them a “clearly unconstitutional set of federal programs that we believe Congress should defund and repeal.”
MORE: Top conservative civil rights advocates seek repeal of Minority-Serving Institutions programs
