Feds axe $12.9M in Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian grants

U.S. Department of Education announces cuts; secretary of education stresses goal to end racial quotas

by Esther Wickham, The Center Square, Sep 16, 2025

(The Center Square) - The U.S. Department of Education announced it will cut all federal grants for the Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-serving institutions program, deeming it unconstitutional.

Last week, Dr. Murray Bessette, the department's principal deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, sent a notice that it will be “discontinuing further funding” of Minority-Serving Institutions programs. 

The department will cut upward of $12.9 million in federal grant funding under Title III Part A programs that seek “to serve low-income students by providing funds to improve and strengthen the academic quality, institutional management, and fiscal stability of eligible institutions,” the education department's website states. 

This follows the U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer's decision in July that the Hispanic-Serving Institutions programs “violate the equal-protection component of the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause.”

Alaska Native-serving institutions must have at least 20% of their undergraduate enrollment be Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian-serving institutions must have at least 10% of their undergraduate enrollment fit that category to be eligible for Title III grant funding. 

The Education Department said the racial quotas in the HSI and MSI programs are unconstitutional. 

“To further our commitment to ending discrimination in all forms across federally supported programs, the Department will no longer award Minority-Serving Institution grants that discriminate by restricting eligibility to institutions that meet government-mandated racial quotas,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.“The Department looks forward to working with Congress to re-envision these programs to support institutions that serve underprepared or under-resourced students without relying on race quotas and will continue fighting to ensure that students are judged as individuals, not prejudged by their membership of a racial group.” 

The department said it will cut funding for discretionary grant programs that will include both new awards and non-competing continuations, and reprogram funding from the following:

• Strengthening Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions (Title III Part A). 

• Strengthening Predominantly Black Institutions (Title III Part A).

• Strengthening Asian American- and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (Title III Part A).

• Strengthening Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions (Title III Part A).

• Minority Science and Engineering Improvement (Title III Part E).

• Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (Title V Part A).

• Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans (Title V Part B). 

The University of Alaska Fairbanks interim chancellor, Mike Sfraga, said the cuts will potentially harm the university's mission to support Alaska Native students.

According to the Department of Education, $350 million in discretionary funds were expected to be allocated to these minority programs in 2025. Now, these funds will be “reprogrammed into programs that do not include discriminatory racial and ethnic quotas and that advance Administration priorities.”

The department is allowing universities one year to close programs funded by the grants.

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