The Trump administration has issued a pair of orders requiring colleges to prove they’re not unlawfully considering race in student admissions.  It will be interesting to get the facts.

             In a memorandum, President Trump mandated that higher education officials submit data verifying institutional compliance and directed the Education Department to “increase accuracy checks” into those records.  “Race-based admissions practices are not only unfair, but also threaten our national security and well-being,” Mr. Trump wrote. “It is therefore the policy of my Administration to ensure institutions of higher education receiving Federal financial assistance are transparent in their admissions practices.”

     Shortly after the memorandum was issued, the Education Department directed its National Center for Education Statistics to go beyond “the racial breakdown of enrolled students” collected in past surveys.  “As part of their regular data reporting process, institutions of higher education will now have to report data disaggregated by race and sex relating to their applicant pool, admitted cohort, and enrolled cohort at the undergraduate level and for specific graduate and professional programs,” the Education Department said. “This data will include quantitative measures of applicants’ and admitted students’ academic achievements such as standardized test scores, GPAs and other applicant characteristics.”

     Education Secretary Linda McMahon also pledged to develop a standardized auditing process to ensure that colleges couldn’t find new ways around the Supreme Court’s June 2023 ruling striking down affirmative action in college admissions.  She pointed to a high-profile lawsuit that accused Harvard University of rebranding rather than dismantling race-conscious admissions after the ruling.