Hawaiʻi colleges could lose millions of dollars under a directive from the U.S. Department of Education ending several grant programs for universities enrolling large numbers of minority students.
In a shift upending decades of precedent, the education department said Wednesday it now believes it is unconstitutional to award federal grants using eligibility requirements based on racial or ethnic enrollment levels. The agency said it is holding back a total of $350 million in grants budgeted for this year and called on the U.S. Congress to re-envision the programs for future years.
This year, 13 Hawaiʻi colleges — including all 10 University of Hawaiʻi campuses — qualified for such grants, although not all of them received funding. The UH system in recent years received as much as $44 million in federal grants for minority-serving institutions.
The programs have traditionally received bipartisan support in Congress and were created to address longstanding racial disparities in education. Not included in the cuts is federal funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, which are open to all students regardless of race…