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The Trump administration is ending several grant programs supporting colleges with large minority student populations over concerns of alleged violations of anti-discrimination laws.
On Wednesday (September 10), the Department of Education announced that it won't provide discretionary funding for grant programs supporting Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), per The Hill. The Trump administration said these funding programs are unlawful because they award grants to institutions based on race or ethnicity.
“Discrimination based upon race or ethnicity has no place in the United States,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “The Department will no longer award Minority-Serving Institution grants that discriminate by restricting eligibility to institutions that meet government-mandated racial quotas.”
McMahon said the department remains committed to supporting students from under-resourced communities, but it will seek to do so in ways that don’t consider race.
“Diversity is not merely the presence of a skin color,” she said. “Stereotyping an individual based on immutable characteristics diminishes the full picture of that person’s life and contributions, including their character, resiliency, and merit.”
The department added that it's working with Congress to redesign MSI programs to benefit “underprepared or under-resourced students” without race-based eligibility. However, McMahon didn't specify where the $350 million in discretionary funds originally intended for the programs will be redirected.
McMahon said the department is also reviewing “underlying legal issues” tied to mandatory MSI funding, signaling more changes to come for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), Tribal Colleges, and more
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