OCA Condemns U.S. Department of Education’s Challenge of Minority Serving Institution Programs

For Immediate Release
December 20, 2025 

Media Contact: 
Socheata Sun, Senior Communications Associate
socheata.sun@ocanational.org

Washington, D.C. — OCA - Asian Pacific American Advocates is deeply concerned by the Department of Education’s attack on minority serving institutions. 

Yesterday, the U.S. Secretary of Education released a statement endorsing the Office of Legal Counsel’s (OLC) opinion that federal funding of minority serving institutions is unconstitutional. Using the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard as its basis, the Department of Education requested guidance from the OLC and is now reviewing the potential impact on the following programs:

• Developing Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI)

• Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans 

• Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) –Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics and Articulation Programs 

• Native American Serving Non-Tribal Institutions 

• Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI)

• Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program 

• Predominantly Black Institutions (PBI) formula grants 

• Predominantly Black Institutions (PBI) competitive grants 

• The Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program 

• Student Support Services 

• Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions 

• Native Hawaiian Career and Technical Education Program

“To apply the Court’s decision in SFFA v. Harvard, which addressed the use of race as a factor in admissions, to the funding of ANAPISIs and historically Black and minority serving institutions is an overly broad expansion of the US Supreme Court majority's rationale in the Harvard case,” said Roland Hwang, Executive Vice President of OCA - Asian Pacific American Advocates. “Extending the rationale of the ruling on race-conscious admissions to federal funding is a pretext that threatens the viability and potentially the existence of those HBSUs and ANAPISI colleges.”

“Congress established programs such as AANAPISI in 2007 under the Higher Education Act to address the gap in educational achievement that has historically affected immigrant, low-income, and other minority communities,” said Thu Nguyen, Executive Director of OCA - Asian Pacific American Advocates. “Federal investment to ensure equal opportunity in accessing higher education only serves to make a positive impact for Americans and our society.”

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About OCA - Asian Pacific American Advocates

Founded in 1973, OCA–Asian Pacific American Advocates is a national, member-driven social justice organization of community advocates dedicated to advancing the social, political, and economic well-being of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs). Learn more about our work at ocanational.org/about.