Trump Administration To Undo Efforts To Boost College Racial Diversity: Reports
It is expected to argue that Obama-era policies encouraging affirmative action extend beyond legal limits.
President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to undo policies that would encourage race as a factor in college admissions, according to news reports.
The decision, which is expected to be made on Tuesday, according to two sources familiar with the plans, would reverse efforts by former President Barack Obama’s administration to increase diversity in schools through affirmative action, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The New York Times also confirmed the administration’s efforts to encourage race-blind admissions standards. The Trump administration will argue that the recommendations outlined during Obama’s term go beyond legal limits and that guidelines provided to schools for boosting minority students are legally misleading, the Journal reported.
White House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) was quick to condemn the reports on Tuesday, calling the anticipated move “yet another attack on the principles of equal access and opportunity.”
“Racial diversity is not only key to preparing our nation’s young people for the global economy, but it also exposes students to new ideas and perspectives, which are essential to a well-rounded education,” Todd A. Cox, policy director for the LDF, said in a statement. “We urge all schools ― from K-12 to higher education ― not to be dissuaded in their efforts to pursue equal access and opportunity as part of their educational mission.”
Cox further expressed concern about the policy changes in the wake of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement news. Kennedy’s departure opens the door for Trump to appoint his replacement, who is expected to shift the balance of the court more conservative.
“This underscores the need to proceed slowly and deliberately in choosing and vetting the next Supreme Court justice, which should happen no sooner than the electorate has had a chance to exercise its voice in the next election,” Cox said. “Moving quickly with the nomination process threatens to jeopardize hard-fought civil rights advancements. We must ensure that the Court continues to advance diversity and protect equal opportunity for students of color.”
The Trump administration’s plans to change policies come as the U.S. Justice Department considers a case about whether Harvard University is illegally discriminating against Asian-American students by limiting the number it accepts. That’s despite those applicants generally achieving better academic records than other ethnic groups, according to the complaint under review.
Harvard has denied limiting its number of Asian-American students and accuses the lawsuit’s plaintiffs of oversimplifying its admissions process. That lawsuit, first filed in late 2014 by conservative advocate Edward Blum, who is white, is expected to go to trial in October. It has been criticized as working to undo affirmative action measures that support historically disadvantaged minority groups.
It isn’t the first major lawsuit to arise in recent years against such practices. In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld that race can be a consideration for college admissions, following an argument by a white woman who felt discriminated against in her application to a University of Texas program in 2008. Blum was an advocate for that woman’s suit.
