RIGHT SPEAK: Education Department Scraps Biden-Era Race-Based Rules for Doctoral Degree Grants; Department of Education to Pull Back Race-Based Criteria in Federal Grants: Young America's Foundation Sued the Department in 2024 for Alleged Racial Discrimination

Education Department scraps Biden-era race-based rules for doctoral degree grants:

The Education Department has agreed not to enforce Biden-era rules in a federal grant program aimed at growing the number of underrepresented students obtaining doctoral degrees.

The guidelines for the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program had prompted a lawsuit from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), which the group has dropped after reaching a written agreement with the Trump administration.

“We knew that the Trump administration was gonna change their position, and so we wanted assurances that they were going to” apply it, WILL managing vice president and deputy counsel Dan Lennington told The Post.

Ellen Keast, the department’s press secretary for higher education, confirmed that the Trump administration reached an agreement with WILL.

“Consistent with the Department of Justice opinion, the Department of Education has agreed not to implement the racially discriminatory aspects of the McNair program, and we plan to make corresponding changes to our regulations,” Keast told The Post.

WILL assisted the conservative Young Americans for Freedom in advancing the lawsuit, which it formally withdrew on Tuesday ahead of a hearing by the St. Louis-based 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Two-thirds of the $60 million McNair program — named for NASA’s second black astronaut in space, who died in the 1986 explosion of the shuttle Challenger — is intended to be reserved for low-income, first-generation college students. --->READ MORE HERE

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Department of Education to pull back race-based criteria in federal grants:

Young America's Foundation sued the department in 2024 for alleged racial discrimination

The U.S. Department of Education will change race-based rules regarding federal student grants after a legal notice was released Tuesday.

In a motion to dismiss, the Young America's Foundation (YAF) requested its ongoing case against the Department of Education be dropped, citing new actions from the agency that have "resolved" the matter.

According to the organization, the department was guilty of racial discrimination in 2024 through the eligibility criteria in the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program.

YAF alleges that students were only eligible to receive funding from the program if they were a "low-income first-generation college student," a "member of a group that is underrepresented in graduate education" or a "member of a group otherwise designated as underrepresented."

Current federal regulations determine "underrepresented" groups in graduate programs to be Black, Hispanic, American Indian, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiians and Native American Pacific Islanders.

Now, YAF claims that the Department of Education will change the eligibility criteria in new upcoming rules.

"Finally, the U.S. Department of Education plans to rescind the race-based eligibility criteria in the McNair regulations through forthcoming rulemaking," the motion said.