SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The Trump administration is ending $350 million earmarked for colleges that primarily serve minority students. The grants have been around for decades and had already been approved by Congress, but the Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Education now say the grants are unconstitutional and amount to illegal discrimination.
Much of this money was set aside for HSIs, or Hispanic-serving institutions - colleges and universities with approximately 25% full-time Latino and Hispanic students. The largest Latino population in the U.S. resides in California, and the largest Latino student population studies in California's community college system. So we asked the chancellor of that 116-school system to join us to talk about this. Chancellor Sonya Christian, welcome.
SONYA CHRISTIAN: Thank you. Good to be here.
DETROW: What is your gut response to this argument that money for an institution that is helping fill gaps in this way that's been documented and formulated by the federal government - that that is discrimination?
CHRISTIAN: Well, I mean, the way I look at it, the money that comes in through the HSI grants goes directly to serving all students within that particular institution. I'm a foreign student that came to this country a long time ago, and that has been something that has represented the United States of America, supporting all populations so they could rise and really secure the American dream.
DETROW: How much money are we talking about that's suddenly been eliminated for your system?
CHRISTIAN: Yeah, we've been collecting that information, and at this point, you know, we're seeing about close to 6 million, but that's only...
DETROW: Six million dollars.
CHRISTIAN: ...From 20 of our colleges, and we have close...
DETROW: OK.
CHRISTIAN: ...To 100 colleges. So we think it's going to be over tens of millions of dollars. We should have better numbers probably within the next week.
DETROW: Do you have a sense yet of what the immediate repercussions are in terms of the student experience in the classroom, the teacher experience in the classroom? Is this something where jobs will have to be eliminated? Is this something where resources will have to be eliminated this academic year?
CHRISTIAN: I mean, the funding is absolutely going to be having an impact to some of the programs. Just earlier on this year, the RFA came out from the U.S. Department of Ed inviting institutions to apply for the HSI, so there was no indication that this funding was going to be removed so quickly. So the lead time has been - there hasn't been a lead time. I think there is going to be an impact simply because there is no time to be able to pivot and find alternative ways to support our students.
DETROW: I'm really wondering what you make of this moment where the Trump administration has attacked elite higher education, has really demonized it in many different ways. You know how important community colleges are for so many people when it comes to upward economic mobility. And here is this moment where tens of millions of dollars in California, hundreds of millions of dollars across the country, are suddenly being taken away. What do you think that message sends?
CHRISTIAN: It is disappointing to imagine, you know, the consequences. On a deeper level, we are doing programs like apprenticeships, internships connected to industry. Via the very fabric of workforce development, particularly given we are in the era of AI, where every sector that you can even imagine is impacted by AI. And this is the time to double down on increasing resources for the community colleges and for our working-class Californians, for our working-class Americans. This is the time to increase the funding, not to be taking away funding. So as you can see, this is an important issue for...
DETROW: Sure.
CHRISTIAN: ...Our working communities. It's an important issue to keep our communities strong, to keep California strong and to keep America strong.
DETROW: That's Sonya Christian, chancellor of California's community college system. Thanks so much for talking to us.
CHRISTIAN: Thank you so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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