Democrat-led states sued Wednesday to try to shut down an Education Department effort to gather data on college admissions and race, saying the Trump administration is rushing the process and making life too difficult for the schools.
Led by Massachusetts, California and Maryland, the lawsuit says the feds cut too many corners in setting up a new system for schools to report on the racial makeup of their applicants and those admitted. The states also said the reporting requirements trample on students’ privacy rights.
The Trump administration has said the data is necessary so the government can make sure schools comply with the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling striking down racial preferences in admissions.
But the states said they don’t trust the administration, labeling the data demand a “fishing expedition.”
“This is the same administration, I’ll remind you, that gutted the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, leaving thousands of civil rights complaints and investigations in limbo,” Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “This latest sham demand threatens to turn a reliable tool into a partisan bludgeon.”
The Education Department already collects a host of information from schools.
Under orders from President Trump, it announced a new survey last year to gather the admissions data, broken down by race and sex. It would include those who applied, were accepted and enrolled, along with test scores, grades and information about family income and financial aid.
Schools say the job of collecting and submitting that information would be immense.
The states, in their lawsuit, say when the Education Department has added a new data demand in the past, it’s left more lead-in time to work out the kinks and give schools a chance to adjust or deliver feedback about areas that are too difficult to comply with.
Each violation of the data demand can bring a penalty of more than $71,000. Schools also risk being booted from eligibility for federal financial assistance funding.
“This mandate puts Maryland’s colleges and universities in an impossible position — face the threat of federal penalties or comply with vague, rushed rules, and risk exposing sensitive student data to a federal government that has already shown it will weaponize that information,” said Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown.
Education Department press secretary Ellen Keast said the government doles out $100 billion in higher education support each year and taxpayers deserve to know what schools are doing.
“The department’s efforts will expand an existing transparency tool to show how universities are taking race into consideration in admissions. What exactly are state AGs trying to shield universities from?” she said in a statement.
In the 2023 Supreme Court case, the justices ruled that policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina that gave Black and Hispanic students a plus factor over White or Asian-American students violated the Constitution.
“Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the court’s majority.
The Trump Justice Department has been pushing schools to turn over data to monitor compliance.
It has sued Harvard after the school missed deadlines to report its information.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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