Home · Politics · Sep 4 archive
Trump Administration Proposes Stripping Tax-Exempt Status from Schools Using Race-Based Programs
Confirmed
In Short: The Trump administration has proposed a new executive order to revoke tax-exempt status from schools that implement race-based programs, according to Fox News.
The Trump administration has proposed a new executive order to revoke tax-exempt status from schools that implement race-based programs, according to Fox News. The proposal aims to target schools rebranding race-based preferences as equitable or inclusive, stating that such practices remain discriminatory, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
The proposal does not prohibit schools from using race-neutral criteria, such as income, geography, or first-generation status, to help disadvantaged students, according to the Treasury Department. The move comes as the administration faces ongoing legal challenges, including a recent decision by U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman to allow the administration's latest executive order on birthright citizenship to proceed.
In other developments, the Trump administration has appealed a decision by U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit regarding changes to how ballots are handled ahead of the midterm elections, according to The New York Times. Additionally, the administration has taken action against 110 commercial driving schools, shutting them down for connections to truck drivers who failed English language proficiency tests, according to the Los Angeles Times.
What's confirmed
What's still developing
- On Friday, U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman in Maryland “declined to immediately block U.S. President Donald Trump’s newest executive order limiting the number of people eligible for birthright citizenship, even as she sharply questioned its viability after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his previous effort to do so,” according to Reuters.
- Hellerstein “rejected President Donald Trump’s latest bid to erase his hush money conviction, ruling he had waited too long to try to move the case” on efforts to conceal a payment made to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels “to federal court,” according to The Washington Post.
- Investigators with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration have also issued notices seeking to shut down another 160 training schools where they said they found unlicensed instructors, missing documentation and inadequate space for drivers to learn necessary maneuvers.
- The Treasury proposal, set to be published in the Federal Register on Sept. 4, is the Trump administration's latest attack on diversity work, and the higher education system more broadly.
- It cited Trump's executive orders directing federal officials to root out DEI in colleges and K-12 schools, which it likened to President Dwight Eisenhower's 1957 executive order authorizing the use of the National Guard to enforce the public school desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas.
- "Any change with potentially profound consequences for an institution’s tax-exempt status should be firmly grounded in statute, clearly defined, and should provide colleges and universities with fair and predictable standards for compliance," she said in a statement.