Trump Administration Proposes Rule Stripping Tax-Exempt Status from Private Schools and Colleges with Diversity Programs

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration is proposing a new rule that would strip private schools and colleges of their tax-exempt status if they provide targeted help to students based on their race, a significant escalation in the White House's campaign to eradicate diversity programs directed at Black, Hispanic and other minority students. The Treasury Department proposed the change Thursday in a new regulation that, if made final, would kick in after May 2027. The rule is broadly aimed at ending any policies or programs that help students because of their race, and it specifically says such benefits in admissions, scholarships and facilities "would be incompatible" with the rule. It's the latest attempt by the Trump administration to pressure schools and colleges to weed out diversity, equity and inclusion policies that had become common before US President Donald Trump returned to the White House with a promise to end them. Trump officials have used Civil Rights-era laws to unwind the policies, saying they discriminate against white and Asian American students. "The administration's latest rules changes are its most blatant attack to keep working class Americans and people of color from accessing higher education and a better life," Mike Gavin, Alliance for Higher Education president and CEO, said in a statement. "By claiming that efforts to increase fair opportunity for all students are discriminatory, the administration is trying to gaslight the American people into believing that up is down and black is white."