Are race-based scholarships on their way out?

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Jeffrey C. Sun, University of Louisville and Charles J. Russo, University of Dayton

(THE CONVERSATION) The fate of hundred of millions of dollars in scholarship money is up in the air in Ohio after seven state universities put race-conscious programs on hold to check their legality. The review comes after Dave Yost, the state’s attorney general, advised administrators in a call that using race as a factor to award funds may be unconstitutional.

Yost’s guidance was based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which banned consideration of a student’s race in college admissions, except under limited conditions.

Yost’s interpretation of the court’s opinion should not have...