Overview
- A February spending deal signed by President Donald Trump kept level funding for Title V and Title III Part A, reviving hopes that HSI/MSI grants could run this year.
- The grant programs remain discretionary, and the Education Department has not said whether it will hold competitions or allocate funds.
- Secretary Linda McMahon last year called the programs discriminatory and unconstitutional and reprogrammed $350 million, including $43 million from CSU campuses and $20 million from California community colleges.
- Senate Democrats urged McMahon to restore funding and showcased campus impacts in an unofficial hearing, while a December Justice Department opinion deemed several MSI grants unconstitutional.
- California Assemblymember Marc Berman introduced AB 2121 to let community colleges temporarily exclude backfill spending from the state’s 50% faculty-cost rule until federal support returns.