The Department of Education is giving schools two weeks to eliminate race-based programs or risk losing federal funding. This warning builds on a 2023 Supreme Court ruling that held that race-conscious admissions at colleges and universities is unlawful.

Neal McCluskey, the director of Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom, has written about affirmative action in the past, saying, “Not only am I against government mandated affirmative action for public colleges, I am against those institutions choosing affirmative action.” McCluskey, however, notes that this is specific to publicly funded colleges and universities and that “private institutions should be free to have affirmative action.”

McCluskey also issued this statement Thursday:

Public institutions — government institutions — must be colorblind, while private institutions must have the freedom to deal with matters of race as they see fit. The country obviously has a troubled past when it comes to treating people of all racial groups equally, while human beings have diverse needs and desires. Private institutions must retain the freedom to undertake myriad approaches to deal with the impacts of our history, and to best serve the diverse needs and desires of millions of unique people.

If you would like to speak to McCluskey about this, please reach out to mmiller@​cato.​org.