The Department of Education Cut $350 Million in Funding to Hispanic-Serving Colleges and Here’s What That Means
The Department of Education is cutting grant funding to Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) after deeming it unconstitutional. The decision ends years of precedent and programs designed to close racial gaps in education that were disproportionately impacting Hispanic communities.
The Trump administration is cutting education funding
The Department of Education is holding back $350 million in grant funding for Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) and other minority serving institutions. In total, the Trump administration is withholding $250 million from HSIs. The other $100 million will come from other programs serving schools that enroll at least 40 percent Black students and institutions that serve Asian American, Pacific Islander, or Native students.
“Diversity is not merely the presence of a skin color,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement, according to the Associated Press. “Stereotyping an individual based on immutable characteristics diminishes the full picture of that person’s life and contributions, including their character, resiliency, and merit.”
This move from the Department of Education comes after Tennessee and Students for Fair Admissions, an anti-affirmative action organization, filed a lawsuit challenging the funding. According to the lawsuit, Tennessee argues that all of its institutions serve Hispanic students but don’t qualify for grants due to the threshold laid out by the program.
The Justice Department has already refused to defend the programs, claiming that requiring 25 percent enrollment violates the Constitution. It is not unprecedented for a presidential administration to refuse to defend a law it finds unconstitutional. President Barack Obama’s administration did this with the Defense of Marriage Act in 2011.
What are Hispanic-Serving Institutions?
Hispanic-Serving Institutions are colleges or universities in which Hispanic students make up a minimum of 25 percent of the undergraduate population. Additionally, half of the enrolled students must also be low-income. This allows the schools to compete for federal grant funding to help Hispanic and underserved/under-resourced students continue their education after high school.
There are more than 600 schools listed as HSIs. California has the most HSIs with 171 campuses across the state, including many in the University of California and California State University systems. Texas has the second-largest number of HSIs with 112, including the University of Texas at Austin. Puerto Rico, Illinois, and New York round out the list for the top five states with HSIs.
HSIs serve a large portion of Hispanic college students. According to data, HSIs enroll around 5.6 million students, and two-thirds of all Hispanic undergraduate college students in the United States.
“Cutting this funding strips away critical investments in under-resourced and first-generation students and will destabilize colleges in 29 states,” David Mendez, Interim CEO, Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, said in a statement. “This is not just a budget cut, it is an attack on equity in higher education.”
The Department of Education is asking Congress to look at the program for Hispanic students and repurpose it for underserved and under-resourced students without consideration of ethnicity. According to the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, there were 600 HSIs for the 2022-2023 school year. That number rose to 615 for the 2023-2024 school year.
