Officials from the United States Department of Education have warned Texas officials that the state’s school system will lose federal funding if it does not use affirmative action programs in admissions. Texas Attorney General Dan Morales earlier directed the schools not to consider race at all when make admissions decisions because of a recent 5th Circuit Federal Court ruling, Hopwood v. Texas which claimed that the 1978 Bakke decision allowing affirmative action programs was no longer viable. The education department’s office of civil rights, however, has directed that the ruling only applied to a special type of admission’s policy no longer pursued in Texas and that it did not wipe out affirmative action programs altogether. Norma Cantu, the head of the civil rights division at the education department, said that Texas schools were bound by a 1992 Ayers v. Fordice ruling in Mississippi which mandated that states continue to root out current discriminatory practices and vestiges of past discrimination. Cantu commented, “The Texas Attorney General’s office has interpreted the 5th Circuit decision much more broadly than necessary. Unless the facts are identical to those in place at the time at the University of Texas Law School, universities may use appropriate affirmative action.” Many believe that the Supreme Court will have to hear a case involving affirmative action and settle the discrepancy between the 5th Circuit Court’s ruling and the Supreme Court’s previous rulings on affirmative action.
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