September 12, 2025
The Education Department plans to reallocate the more than $350 million in grant money for Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI) to programs it says aren’t unconstitutional.
The U.S. Department of Education announced that it will end $350 million in discretionary funding for colleges that serve large populations of minority serving institutions.
The Trump administration said the grants allocated for Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI), mainly HBCUs and Hispanic Serving Institutions, are “unconstitutional.”
“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,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon wrote in a statement. “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.”
McMahon said the Education Department plans to work with Congress to reprogram the discretionary funds to institutions that “serve underprepared or under-resourced students without relying on race quotas.”
What Led To The End of Grants at Minority Serving Institutions?
According to Insight Into Academia, the Trump administration’s decision follows a lawsuit by Tennessee and the conservative group Students for Fair Admissions, which challenged the legality of Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) programs.
The Trump administration declined to defend the initiative in court, and Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that the program violated the “equal-protection component of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.” Sauer cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to end race-conscious admissions.
Critics argue the administration is overstepping its authority and that ending the grants does more harm than good, especially for students attending under-resourced schools.
“Schools [that] are in the middle of their grant periods are being given less than a month to plan as their grants aren’t being continued,” Amanda Fuchs Miller, former deputy assistant secretary for higher education programs under President Joe Biden, told The Washington Post via email. “And, just earlier this month [the Education Department] ran competitions for many of these programs, wasting time and resources for those who applied.”
The Education Department did not reveal where it plans to reallocate the funds.
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