President Trump’s new requirement mandating that colleges share more data about their students could help conservatives who have argued that elite universities discriminate against white and Asian students.

But the Trump administration’s push to force colleges to be more transparent about the race, test scores and grades of applicants may run into a problem.

Since taking office in January, the administration has fired nearly everyone who worked at the National Center for Education Statistics, the statistics branch within the Department of Education that would be responsible for the new data collection effort.

Of about 100 employees who worked at the National Center for Education Statistics, just four remain.

“Who is going to analyze that data?” said Angel B. Pérez, chief executive of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

In his second term, President Trump has often taken a paradoxical approach to education, pushing to diminish the federal government’s role, even as he tries to wield its power.