CALIFORNIA, USA — Local community colleges are scrambling to keep life-changing student programs afloat after the U.S. Department of Education announced it will end funding for certain minority-focused initiatives, saying they are racially discriminatory.
Students say those programs were instrumental to their success and worry the decision could roll back years of progress in higher education access.
“It’s just disheartening, and I fear that we’re regressing,” said Emilee Chu, a 23-year-old student who credits her academic success to the minority support programs at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento…