proposed solution laws to transfer funds to need-based economic aid
Some of the most renowned liberal civil rights activists are calling on Congress to stop the” obviously illegal set of national programs that we believe Congress if defund and repeal.”
The American Civil Rights Project’s leaders, Gail Heriot, Peter Kirsanow, and Daniel Morenoff, recently wrote to politicians asking them to close the applications.
” These courses may be canceled because they are blatantly unconstitutional.” Federal funds are being distributed to colleges and universities based on individuals ‘ race or ethnicity, the pair claimed. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is comprised of Heriot and Kirsanow.
Additionally, the civil rights activists have proposed other legislation that had transfer MSI funds toward need-based fiscal aid, particularly by strengthening the Pell Grant program.
Heriot told The College Fix,” We are proposing to Congress that the funds been redirected in a way that may be constitutional.”
For instance, the money already going to MSIs could be used to finance colleges and universities that teach a greater number of low- and middle-class students than the average amount, she said, or it could be used to fund increased Pell grants directly to lower- and middle-income students.
Their March 10 letter to lawmakers asserts that unfair advantages are created by the current MSI funding initiatives, which provide millions of additional federal funds to colleges and universities that maintain a certain percentage of students of color.
No one would argue that this was anything other than racial discrimination if Congress had instituted a spending plan that would only fund colleges and universities with student populations at least 25 % White. This is how they posed a hypothetical scenario to illustrate their concerns.
Heriot, a law professor at the University of San Diego and chair of the ACRP, said she felt compelled to take action on this matter after the Supreme Court overturned affirmative action in 2023.
Federal programs that promote college-based discrimination must be eliminated, Heriot said in a statement to The Fix,” If that decision is going to be enforced, as I believe it should be.”
Heriot argued that the MSI programs are racially discriminatory and should be replaced with different laws.
Heriot urged us to stop assuming that we are aware of who is advantaged and disadvantaged in terms of race or ethnicity. The world is “more complicated than that,” he said.
The “point of the existing program is to ensure that individuals without access to higher education can afford it,” according to Daniel Morenoff, the executive director of ACRP.
In a telephone interview, he said,” There are better ways to do that, and one of them is the Pell Grant program.” It is a current program that, unlike groups that might or might not include needy students, has no legal issues and directly benefits those who are actually in need.
He also warned that MSI programs encourage universities to give racial balance precedence over merit in admissions.
” You create a strong incentive for large institutions to do whatever is necessary to obtain that racial balance so they can have access to those funds,” he said when you tell them,” There is a funding source available to you, but only if you obtain a particular racial balance.”
The broader goal of ACRP is to uphold equal protection under the law.
” We want to end all government initiatives that violate constitutional laws,” Morenoff said. ” At the same time, we can better serve the potentially useful objectives these programs attempt but fail to achieve.”
Morenoff explained how the organization’s mission aligns with replacing the MSI programs with needs-based ones.
He said,” We’re an organization that was established to restore the equal protection that all Americans share rights” to American law.
When we have identified programs that are very clearly indecently contrary to that standard, we want to stop the government from doing things so that we can learn more about how its current programs are attempting to advance the potentially legitimate goals that its current programs do, Morenoff said.
The Fix reached out to the Exelencia in Education and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education for comments, but they did not receive any responses.
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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Washington, D.C. / Shutterstock The Congress building
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