Race-Based College Aid Is Up to Courts, Alexander Says

Education Secretary Lamar Alexander said Wednesday that the Supreme Court will ultimately have to decide whether federally supported colleges and universities may designate scholarships for minority-member students.

The Education Department is completing a nearly yearlong review of the issue, and Alexander said that he would release a formal policy decision on race-specific financial aid within the next two weeks.

In a meeting with reporters, Alexander refused to say whether he would allow schools to use public funds for such scholarships. But he acknowledged that the decision will produce “some area of disagreement.”

He predicted that the Supreme Court would have the “final say.”

Controversy over race-based scholarships broke out last December, when the department’s Office of Civil Rights, offering advice to organizers of the Fiesta Bowl, ruled that most scholarships reserved for members of minority groups were illegal.

That caused outcries throughout the academic and civil rights communities, and the Bush Administration quickly modified the ruling to allow federally supported institutions to offer such scholarships, provided that they are financed with earmarked private donations.

The Education Department, meanwhile, gave the institutions four years to review their financial aid programs and to comply with the modified ruling--which could be modified again by Alexander.