The U.S. Department of Education has announced that it will stop funding several discretionary grant programs for Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) that the department says are “racially discriminatory.” This decision, which affects hundreds of millions in federal funding, marks a turning point in how the federal government supports colleges and universities that serve historically underrepresented student populations.
The Department concluded that several grant programs, including those for Hispanic-Serving Institutions and other minority-focused initiatives, are unconstitutional because they use explicit racial or ethnic quotas to determine eligibility. The U.S. Solicitor General advised that such programs violate the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment, and the Department of Justice has said it will no longer defend them in ongoing lawsuits.
Approximately $350 million in discretionary funds were expected to be allocated to support these programs in fiscal year 2025. The discretionary grant programs that the Department will cease to fund will include both 2025 new awards and non-competing continuations, and the Department will reprogram funding from the following:
- Strengthening Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions (Title III Part A);
- Strengthening Predominantly Black Institutions (Title III Part A);
- Strengthening Asian American- and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (Title III Part A);
- Strengthening Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions (Title III Part A);
- Minority Science and Engineering Improvement (Title III Part E);
- Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (Title V Part A); and
- Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans (Title V Part B).
Grant recipients will be notified that existing discretionary awards will be non-continued, and applicants for new grants will be notified that the competitions will not make any new awards for fiscal year 2025.
While discretionary program funding for fiscal year 2025 will be reprogrammed to support other priorities, the Department will disperse approximately $132 million in mandatory funds appropriated by Congress that cannot be reprogrammed on a statutory basis. Programs receiving mandatory funds include:
- Strengthening Alaska Native- and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions (Title III Part F);
- Strengthening Predominantly Black Institutions (Title III Part F);
- Strengthening Asian American- and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (Title III Part F);
- Strengthening Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions (Title III Part F); and Developing HSI Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics and Articulation Programs (Title III Part F).
Recipients of those programs should not consider them safe indefinitely. the Department said that they will continue “to consider the underlying legal issues associated with the mandatory funding mechanism in these programs.”
This decision reflects a broader national shift in how race-conscious policies in education are being evaluated. Following recent Supreme Court rulings on affirmative action, the federal government is increasingly cautious about any program that uses racial or ethnic categories as a basis for eligibility.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon emphasized that discrimination based on race or ethnicity “has no place in the United States” and urged a move toward policies that evaluate students as individuals, not by group membership.
“Discrimination based upon race or ethnicity has no place in the United States. To further our commitment to ending discrimination in all forms across federally supported programs, the Department will no longer award Minority-Serving Institution grants that discriminate by restricting eligibility to institutions that meet government-mandated racial quotas,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Diversity is not merely the presence of a skin color. 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 looks forward to working with Congress to reenvision these programs to support institutions that serve underprepared or under-resourced students without relying on race quotas and will continue fighting to ensure that students are judged as individuals, not prejudged by their membership of a racial group.”
The immediate funding cuts will be felt by many colleges beginning in 2025, but the long-term story will depend on how Congress and the Department reshape these programs. For administrators, students, and policymakers, the next year will be critical. The way these programs are reshaped could set the course for federal higher education support for decades to come.