According to the Chronicle Of Higher Education, on September 10, 2025 the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) announced its intention to end grant funding for minority-serving institutions, a move affecting hundreds of colleges that serve a disproportionate number of students from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. The USDE said it would eliminate programs aimed at colleges serving large numbers of Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian students, Asian American students, and Hispanic students. Also affected are grants for predominantly Black institutions and Native American-serving institutions — designations for colleges that educate a large share of Black and Native students but were not founded as historically Black colleges or tribal colleges.
In a statement published on its website, the USDE described its interpretation that grants for minority-serving institutions, or MSIs, are effectively discriminatory “by conferring government benefits exclusively to institutions that meet racial or ethnic quotas.”
The USDE also said that its move would affect $350 million in discretionary funding that was already allocated by Congress to minority-serving grant programs in the 2025 fiscal year. That money will be “reprogrammed into programs that do not include discriminatory racial and ethnic quotas,” according to the department’s statement. Some MSI grants are administered by other agencies.
A majority of MSIs are Hispanic-serving, meaning that at least 25 percent of full-time student enrollment identifies as Hispanic or Latino. The HSI designation, created by Congress in 1992 with bipartisan support, was intended to increase educational attainment for Hispanic students, who were enrolling in and graduating from college at low rates. Currently, Hispanic students are the fastest-growing demographic group in higher education
Colleges become eligible for minority-serving funding by meeting a series of criteria, including an enrollment threshold and demonstrated financial need.
The USDE said its decision to end MSI funding stems from a lawsuit filed in June 2025 by the State of Tennessee and Students for Fair Admissions. In that case, the USDE refused to defend the program in court.
View the USDE statement on its website by clicking here.