Matt Lamb, associate editor for The College Fix, says this problem is currently happening at Kansas State University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The two institutions will reportedly use a "youth participatory action research" model to filter non-white high school students into teacher training to "increase the number of teachers of color… in majority Latinx K-12 schools."
"This program is likely illegal because it discriminates on the basis of race," Lamb states. "The program is clearly only open to non-white students, and that probably violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964."
To address the issue, he says such programs will typically have to be redone.
"What will commonly happen is a university will have a program like this or a scholarship that focuses on minorities in engineering or women in business, and they typically start this with some donation from a corporation or a foundation that wants some sort of program," Lamb explains. "No university attorney ever reviews the program, or they just don't think it's illegal, or I guess they don't think they'll get caught."
The program is federally funded, with the Department of Education covering 25% of the $5.2 million Project RAÍCES, which stands for Re-envisioning Action and Innovation through Community Collaborations for Equity across System.
Lamb says that is a problem in itself. To correct it, the department would have to re-work its own requirements for a program that it is funding. Another option would be for the programs to be changed to allow for any race to benefit.
