Hello and welcome back to The Markup, Inside Higher Ed’s weekly roundup of all things higher ed policy. I’m your host, Katherine Knott, IHE’s news editor who is once again wondering why people get into the water with sharks. (Happy Shark Week!)
In the last week, the Trump administration notched another victory in its campaign against in-state tuition for undocumented students and sued another state—Colorado—over such policies. So far, the Justice Department has sued 14 states and five voluntarily decided to scrap the challenged state laws. Federal judges have struck down the laws in two cases while another judge dismissed the federal government’s lawsuit. (You can read more about the legal fight here.)
And we learned more about the scale of grant cancellations at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. So far, more than 100 grants have been canceled, totaling $131.3 million. This agency funds efforts to improve America’s health-care system through research and training for new scientists and clinicians.
This Week’s Big Story
The Trump administration’s investigations into admission decisions at medical schools are offering us a glimpse into how it’s interpreting and enforcing the Supreme Court’s decision banning race-conscious admissions.
So far, the Justice Department has found that four medical schools discriminated based on race in admissions, and Johanna Alonso dug into those four findings to see what we can learn from that set of investigations.
One key takeaway: Median MCAT scores matter. For three of the medical schools, the Justice Department shared data showing the median MCAT score for Black, Hispanic, white and Asian students. For the Trump administration, differences in those scores for the different demographic groups are evidence of racial discrimination. DOJ officials also point to statements from university officials and internal documents that show the administrators hoped to enroll a diverse student body.
A former Office for Civil Rights lawyer and another outside expert took issue with the investigations, saying that the administration is basing legal conclusions on inferences—not evidence—and that DOJ lawyers are misinterpreting that Supreme Court decision. They also argue that the DOJ’s letters about its findings don’t give enough information about how the agency conducted its analysis of the universities’ data.
We expect to get more glimpses into the administration’s playbook on this issue as more medical schools are under investigation. Meanwhile, the Education Department is reviewing reams of recently submitted admissions data from all colleges, which some critics worry could serve as the basis for future inquiries.
