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2h ago

Justice Department Won’t Defend HSI Grant Eligibility as Education Department Reviews Programs

The decision aligns the government with a lawsuit attacking the 25% Latino-enrollment threshold for funding.

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Overview

  • The Justice Department told House Speaker Mike Johnson that certain Higher Education Act provisions for Hispanic-Serving Institutions violate the Fifth Amendment’s equal-protection component.
  • The Education Department is evaluating three programs—Developing HSIs, Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans, and HSI–STEM and Articulation—with roughly $350 million a year at stake.
  • Tennessee and Students for Fair Admissions sued in June to block HSI-only grants, citing the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling against race-based policies and arguing the threshold excludes many public universities.
  • The department’s letter, dated July 25, formalizes the government’s refusal to defend the HSI rules, and a national association of Hispanic-serving colleges has moved to intervene to defend the program in court.
  • A senior Education Department official said the administration will continue defending HBCU-specific programs, while the shift raises questions about the future of other race-based grant programs such as PBI and AANAPISI.