White House cuts grants for minority-serving colleges, declaring them unconstitutional

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is ending several grant programs reserved for colleges that have large numbers of minority students, saying they amount to illegal discrimination by tying federal money to racial quotas.

In a shift upending decades of precedent, the Education Department said Wednesday that it now believes it’s unconstitutional to award federal grants using eligibility requirements based on racial or ethnic enrollment levels. The agency said it’s holding back a total of $350 million in grants budgeted for this year and called on Congress to “re-envision” the programs for future years.

More than $250 million of that figure was budgeted for the government’s Hispanic-Serving Institution program, which offers grants to colleges and universities where at least a quarter of undergraduates are Hispanic. Congress created the program in 1998 after finding that Latino students were going to college and graduating at far lower rates than white students.

California, with its large Latino population, has the most HSI campuses in the nation — 167, or more than a quarter of the 602 HSIs in the country. That includes five of the nine University of California undergraduate campuses, all but one of California State University’s 22 campuses, and the majority of the state’s community colleges.

In total, California universities and community colleges have received more than $600 million in HSI grants since federal funding for the program began in 1995.

Several smaller programs are also being cut, including $22 million for schools where at least 40% of students are Black, along with programs reserved for schools with certain enrollment levels of Asian American, Pacific Islander or Native American students. The programs have traditionally received bipartisan support in Congress and were created to address long-standing racial disparities in education.

Not included in the cuts is federal funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, which are open to all students regardless of race.

“Diversity is not merely the presence of a skin color,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement Wednesday. “Stereotyping an individual based on immutable characteristics diminishes the full picture of that person’s life and contributions, including their character, resiliency, and merit.”

McMahon added that she aims to work with Congress to repurpose the funding for institutions that serve “underprepared or under-resourced” students without using quotas. She did not elaborate on plans to repurpose the $350 million.

The government’s grants for Hispanic-Serving Institutions are being challenged in a federal lawsuit brought by the state of Tennessee and the anti-affirmative action group Students for Fair Admissions. Tennessee argues that all of its public universities serve Hispanic students, but none meet the “arbitrary ethnic threshold” to be eligible for the grants.

The Justice Department declined to defend the grants in the lawsuit, saying in a July memo that the 25% enrollment requirement violates the Constitution.

In court filings, a national association of Hispanic-Serving Institutions said the grants are legal and help put its members on an even playing field.

The new cuts drew backlash from Democrats in Congress.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), said Trump is “putting politics ahead of students simply looking to get ahead.” She drew attention to the government’s current funding bill, a stopgap measure passed in March that gives the administration more flexibility to redirect federal funding.

“This is another important reminder of why Congress needs to pass funding bills, like the one the Senate marked up this summer, that ensure Congress — not Donald Trump or Linda McMahon — decides how limited taxpayer dollars are spent,” Murray said in a statement.

The Education Department said it will still release about $132 million for similar grant programs that are considered mandatory, meaning their levels are dictated by existing laws. Even so, the department said it “continues to consider the underlying legal issues associated with the mandatory funding mechanism in these programs.”

Binkley writes for the Associated Press.