proposed solution laws to transfer funds to need-based economic aid
Some of the most renowned liberal civil rights activists in the country are calling on Congress to stop the” obviously illegal set of national plans 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 initiatives are blatantly unlawful, and they ought to get ended. 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 more low- and middle-class students than the average number of students, 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 exist as a result of the state’s current MSI funding initiatives, which provide millions of additional federal funding to colleges and universities while keeping a certain percentage of students from 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.
After the Supreme Court overturned affirmative action in 2023, Heriot, a law professor at the University of San Diego and chair of the ACRP, felt compelled to take action on this matter.
Federal programs that promote college discrimination must be eliminated, Heriot told 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 said,” We need to stop assuming that we know who is advantaged and disadvantaged based on race or ethnicity.” The world is “more complicated than that,” he said.
The “point of the existing program is to ensure that individuals lacking 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 the Pell Grant program is one of them.” It’s an existing program that doesn’t face legal issues and directly benefits actual needy students, as opposed to groups that might or might not include needy students.
He also warned that universities should give racial balance precedence over merit when applying to MSI programs.
” 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 larger goal of the ACRP is to uphold equal protection under the law.
We want to end all government initiatives that violate constitutional laws, according to Morenoff. ” 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 very clearly don’t live up to that standard, we want to stop the government from doing things that it is required to do, and then we can understand how better it is serving the potentially beneficial objectives that its current programs attempt but fail to achieve,” Morenoff said.
The Fix reached out to the Exelencia in Education and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education for comments, but neither one of them responded.
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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Washington, D.C. / Shutterstock The Congress building
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