The Supreme Court has ruled against the legality of racial preferences in college admissions, but nearly all of our higher education leaders denounced the decision, some proclaiming that they’d continue just as before. Ferreting out the data to show discrimination was difficulty and costly, so they figured that they could get away with it.

But, as Russell Warne observes in today’s Martin Center article, new data reporting requirements from the Department of Education are going to change things dramatically.

He writes:

The new directive makes enforcing the Students for Fair Admissions decision much easier. Previously, disaggregated data about applicants and admitted students could be obtained only during a lawsuit. (Even open-records requests often do not produce this information.) Now, the Department of Education has made reporting these statistics a condition for receiving access to federal research funds or student loans. By making the data transparent, the Trump administration makes it easy for the government to identify universities that have admissions practices that result in de facto discrimination. And all of the necessary data will be delivered each year to the government and the public, without requiring any lawsuits, investigations, or open-records requests. You might as well tie a bow on it.

Not only can the government identify violators, but so can private parties. Colleges and universities that ignore the Court’s ruling will have to worry about litigation from all sides.

Warne is optimistic that we have finally made the move that will stamp out racial discrimination in education.