Students of all races and ethnicities are suffering from Trump’s anti-DEI, anti-civil rights campaign
So far, President Trump’s main education policy, if you want to call it that, is to wipe out diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in schools, and that is part of his larger war to repeal civil rights laws that date back to the 1960s. Restoring the legality of white privilege obviously appeals to Trump and many in his MAGA army of followers.
In the process, he is undermining the future of education in America and jeopardizing the hopes and dreams of millions of young people of all races and ethnicities, including white students.
Consider his recent decision to wipe out special funding for about 600 Hispanic serving educational institutions (HSIs) throughout the U.S. HSIs are colleges and universities, both private and state-supported, with enrollments that are more than 25 percent Hispanic. Announcing the cuts, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said it was “discriminatory” to set aside the funding for HSIs, even though these schools serve students of all races and ethnicities and all students benefit from the grants.
About 100 of these schools with about one million students are in Texas, and these institutions were expecting about $60 million in grants this year. Now, they are scrambling to plug budget holes and trying to save important student programs, including enhanced academic offerings, more research opportunities and better career readiness.
“We prioritize student success, and that’s not going to change,” said Montserrat “Montse” Fuentes, president of St. Edward’s University in Austin, one of the HSIs.
“But not having access to that type of funding would impact the speed and the volume of the support and the initiatives that we can set in place to help students,” she told the Austin American-Statesman. She said the programs funded by the grants helped increase student retention at St. Edward’s, which has many first-generation college students and where half of the students receive student aid through Pell Grants, based on financial need.
Since Trump returned to office, St. Edward’s also has lost federal funding for the McNair Scholars program, which supported economically disadvantaged students, after this year and for the College Assistance Migrant Program, which helped migrant students with financial, academic and emotional support.
The Trump administration cut $350 million in all from HSIs and other minority-serving institutions across the country and used much of the money to increase funding by about $495 million to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and tribally controlled educational institutions.
Andres Castro Samayoa, an associate professor in Boston College’s School of Education and Human Development, told CNN he suspects Trump is supporting HBCUs to gain “political goodwill.” The move will allow Trump to “point to this as engaging in allegedly nonracist behavior,” he said.
Stakeholders in the HBCU community told CNN that they have been able to get extra funding from the Trump administration because their schools don’t practice DEI, and some HBCUs are predominantly white. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, non-Black students made up 24 percent of HBCU enrollment in 2022.
In his executive order on HBCUs, Trump said they were “beacons of educational excellence and economic opportunity that serve as some of the best cultivators of tomorrow’s leaders in business, government, academia and the military.”
He could have accurately said the same thing about HSIs. But instead, he gave them the budget ax.
As long as Trump is president, and he continues to target DEI and civil rights with a rubberstamp Republican Congress, HBCU presidents better not get too comfortable. They will need more funding next year too. Will it be there?
Cuts to Hispanic serving institution funds threaten support for Austin colleges
Trump boosts HBCU funding despite his attacks on DEI programs. Here is why some experts believe this is happening.
