It took Republicans no time at all to take the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision and use it to attack other educational initiatives intended to support people of color. On Thursday — the same day the Court declared race-conscious admissions policies unconstitutional — the state’s attorney general, Andrew Bailey, dispatched a letter to colleges and universities across the state: “Missouri institutions must identify all policies that give preference to individuals on the basis of race and immediately halt the implementation of such policies.” Hours later, the University of Missouri — which enrolls 70,000 students across four campuses — declared, in a statement acknowledging Bailey’s letter, it would end race-based financial aid programs.
“As allowed by prior law, a small number of our programs and scholarships have used race/ethnicity as a factor for admissions and scholarships. Those practices will be discontinued, and we will abide by the new Supreme Court ruling concerning legal standards that applies to race-based admissions and race-based scholarships,” Christian Basi, spokesperson for the university, wrote.
The majority’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. The President and Fellows of Harvard University concerned college admissions, but GOP officials are citing one specific line to challenge other programs intended to level the playing field for underrepresented communities: “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.” Both Bailey and Republican Rep. Robin Vos, speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly invoked the line as they announced plans to target financial aid. Vos declared his intention to introduce laws that would end scholarships, grants, and other programs intended to encourage minority enrollment at Wisconsin’s colleges and universities the same day the court handed down the decision.