WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education has decided to halt the enforcement of certain Biden-era regulations within a federal initiative designed to increase the participation of underrepresented students in doctoral programs.
This decision pertains to the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program, following a lawsuit initiated by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL). The institute has since withdrawn its legal action after securing an agreement with the Trump administration.
Dan Lennington, managing vice president and deputy counsel at WILL, expressed confidence in the Trump administration’s willingness to amend its stance, stating, “We anticipated that the Trump administration would revise their approach, and we sought assurances of their commitment to do so.”
Ellen Keast, serving as the press secretary for higher education at the Department of Education, verified the agreement with WILL, clarifying the administration’s position.
“Aligned with the Department of Justice’s opinion, the Department of Education has chosen not to enforce the racially discriminatory elements of the McNair program, and we are in the process of revising our regulations accordingly,” Keast announced.
WILL, in collaboration with the conservative group Young Americans for Freedom, spearheaded the lawsuit, which they formally withdrew just before a scheduled hearing by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.
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.
The rest of the money is set aside for groups that are “underrepresented” in graduate programs.
WILL expressed concerns that “underrepresented” applied to black, Hispanic, and Native American students, but not white or Asian students.
The right-leaning law firm began noticing in 2021 that the Biden administration was beefing up dozens of programs for “socially disadvantaged individuals” and began firing off lawsuits in response.
“We’ve been at this now for five full years, suing over these programs and having tremendous success,” Lennington reflected. “This is just sort of the cherry on the top.”
“The last thing to do is to get the Trump administration to do the work of formally removing the last vestiges of this race discrimination.”
Since President Trump was sworn in as the 47th president last year, his team has been working on scrapping race-based rules across the government.
Trump signed multiple executive orders to further that goal, including one on Jan. 21, 2025, to “restore merit-based opportunity.”
Both the Justice Department’s Division of Civil Rights and the Education Department have lodged several complaints accusing colleges and universities of perpetuating race-selective programs.
“Now we’re down and actually doing the hard work of removing these entrenched race-based programs, one at a time,” Lennington explained.
“We’re very, very happy with the Trump administration’s promise to follow the law and to provide equal opportunity for everybody.”
