Trump administration calls minority grant funding “racially discriminatory,” redirects money to charter schools

The Trump administration informed Monday it would redirect funding for minority-serving institutions into U S charter schools to promotion school choice The Department of Mentoring revealed following the release of the National Assessment of Educational Progress scores last week which revealed dismal educational outcomes across the nation the department is shifting funding to advance President Trump s priorities Testing material issued last week revealed that overall students scores were lower in th grade math and reading and th grade science than the last time students were tested in Related Articles Review Neil Young completely returns to Bridge School Benefit home California temporarily blocks Trump plan barring specific immigrants from food banks strength care Head Start and more UC Berkeley shares names of students staff with feds amid antisemitism research California school district to pay million to settle final sex abuse lawsuits against former coaches Stabilizing West Contra Costa Unified budget will require shared accountability school leadership says In May U S Secretary of Tuition Linda McMahon stated that the department planned to increase charter school funding by million for fiscal year raising the plan s total budget to million The additional funding released Monday comes from discretionary grant programs the Trump administration ended funding for last week including Hispanic-serving institutions HSI and other minority-serving institutions arguing the programs were racially discriminatory because they required schools to maintain a percentage of minority students in their total scholar enrollment For Hispanic-serving institutions at least of schools aspirant body must be Hispanic students while at least of predominantly Black institutions novice body must be Black According to California State University of the university s campuses meet the criteria to qualify as a Hispanic-serving institution CSU Chancellor Mildred Garc a disclosed last week the university is deeply troubled by the Trump Administration s decision to end funding for the grant venture and the action will have an immediate impact and irreparable harm to our entire area Hispanic students account for nearly half of the CSU s total candidate population and reflect the extraordinary diversity of the state of California which makes the CSU truly unique Garc a disclosed Without this funding students will lose the critical sponsorship they need to succeed in the classroom complete their degrees on time and achieve social mobility for themselves and their families Federal HSI funding is used by the CSU to endorsement all CSU students not just Hispanic students The Department of Mentoring also reported Monday a one-time outlay of million in funding to Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities bringing the total funding for HBCUs to billion and for TCCUs to million for fiscal year The department also declared it would invest over million in American history and civics grants The department has scrupulously scrutinized our federal grants ensuring that taxpayers are not funding racially discriminatory programs but those programs which promote merit and excellence in coaching McMahon mentioned in a comment Monday The Trump Administration will use every available tool to meaningfully advance educational outcomes and ensure every American has the opportunity to succeed in life