(Corrects paragraph 1 to add dropped words on targeting racial groups)
By Jack Queen
NEW YORK, Sept 3 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday proposed new regulations that would strip schools of tax-exempt status if they offer targeted support to specific racial groups.
The rules proposed by the U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service are the latest salvo in the administration’s campaign to eradicate diversity programs and end what officials say is discrimination against white students in favor of students of color.
Civil rights advocates say diversity practices help address historic inequities for marginalized ethnic minorities who were legally discriminated against for decades.
The proposal, which is subject to a public comment period and would likely draw legal challenges if implemented, draws on recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that limited how colleges and universities can consider race in admissions.
Treasury’s proposal would cover admissions, educational policies, scholarships and loans, athletics and “every other school-administered or school-supported program.” It would apply to programs that consider race “for any purpose,” including mitigating past racial discrimination.
“Schools rebranding race-based preferences as equitable, inclusive, or diversity-enhancing does not change their discriminatory nature,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
The American Association of University Professors, which advocates for academic freedom and has sued the Trump administration to block funding cuts, said it is considering legal action in response to the proposal.
“This is not neutral enforcement of civil-rights law. It is an affirmative attempt to turn civil-rights law against the very people it was enacted to protect,” AAUP President Todd Wolfson said in a statement. “For half a century, federal policy recognized that measures intended to dismantle entrenched racial exclusion are not equivalent to policies designed to preserve it.”
The Treasury estimated the change could affect as many as 18,000 schools at all education levels and 750,000 students who may qualify for race-based scholarships.
The proposal would not bar private schools from maintaining a religious mission, curriculum or program, and religious schools could continue selecting students based on religious affiliation, according to a Treasury Department statement.
Treasury also said the proposal would not prevent schools from assisting disadvantaged students using race-neutral criteria such as income, geography or first-generation status.
The Trump administration has cracked down on diversity policies at colleges. Rights advocates say the crackdown threatens free speech, due process and academic freedom.
Trump has singled out Harvard University, the country’s oldest and richest university, in particular with funding freezes, investigations and threats to the school’s tax-exempt status.
(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
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