The Trump administration is backing away from a program that steers millions of dollars to universities that serve large numbers of Hispanic students.
Federal officials said on Friday that they would not contest a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Hispanic-serving institution program, which supports colleges where at least 25 percent of the undergraduates are Hispanic.
The program was challenged in federal court in Tennessee in June by Students for Fair Admissions, the group that successfully pushed the Supreme Court to ban race-conscious college admissions, and by the state of Tennessee. They argued that the 25-percent threshold of Hispanic students was an illegal quota.
Tennessee also argued that several of its public colleges and universities were being unfairly deprived of millions of dollars in funding because they did not meet the 25-percent threshold.
“There is no valid reason to make federal funds turn on race or ethnicity,” the complaint said. “Funds should help needy students regardless of their immutable traits, and the denial of those funds harms students of all races.”
The lawsuit was part of a swelling tide of litigation against schools, corporations and diversity programs that seek to combat a legacy of discrimination against certain races or ethnicities. And it is part of an effort by opponents of affirmative action to expand the reach of the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, the lawsuit which, along with a similar case against the University of North Carolina, ended affirmative action in college admissions.
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