"The Education Department plans to eliminate any race-based eligibility criteria for the McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement award, a $60 million grant program designed to increase access to doctorate-level degrees. The decision, first reported Tuesday by Politico, settles a lawsuit from the Young America's Foundation that argued the current criteria are discriminatory. But court filings confirm that the agreement was voluntary."
"Currently, at least two-thirds of the students in a college's McNair program have to be both low-income and first-generation. Only the remaining third can qualify solely because they came from an "underrepresented group." And while many of the low-income students also happen to be Black, Hispanic and Indigenous-the racial groups deemed "underrepresented" by federal code -some are also white or Asian. And nowhere does the law limit "underrepresented groups" to race, McNair experts add."
"Still, the lawsuit, which was filed in 2024 on behalf of two white students, argued that any degree of race-based consideration was illegal. A federal judge dismissed the case in January 2025, but YAF appealed and used multiple Trump executive orders that targeted diversity, equity and inclusion to bolster its arguments. YAF only agreed to drop the lawsuit after guidance from the Department of Justice prompted the education secretary to commit to repeal McNair's race-based eligibility criteria in a "forthcoming rule making.""
The Education Department plans to eliminate race-based eligibility criteria for the McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement award, a $60 million grant program to increase access to doctorate-level degrees. Currently, at least two-thirds of program participants at a college must be both low-income and first-generation; only the remaining third may qualify solely as members of an "underrepresented group." Federal code does not limit "underrepresented groups" to race, and many beneficiaries include white women in STEM. A 2024 lawsuit by Young America's Foundation challenged any race-based consideration; a federal judge dismissed the case in January 2025, but the Department of Justice urged regulatory changes.
Read at Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs
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