3.20.25 – Texas Scorecard
“Texas Tech Medical School Commits to Race-Neutral Admissions in Legal Settlement”
By Valerie Munoz
In a victory for merit-based access to state-funded schools, the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center has agreed to ignore race in medical school admissions.
TTUHSC was one of six Texas medical schools sued by America First Legal in 2023 for alleged discriminatory race and sex admissions preferences.
“The Supreme Court of the United States made it clear that race cannot be a consideration in college admissions,” said Nick Barry, America First Legal senior counsel, about the settlement.
“It violates the student’s Fourteenth Amendment Constitutional right to equal protection. Divvying up Americans based on race only creates problems and solves none. All universities should take note of TTUHSC’s decision and do likewise.”
AFL’s client George Stewart, a white male, applied to TTUHSC and five other medical schools in the state.
Stewart was not granted admission to any of the six.
He then filed an open records request for the race, sex, grade-point average, and MCAT score data for every applicant.
The results of the request revealed that the median and mean grade-point averages and MCAT scores of admitted black and Hispanic students were significantly lower than those of admitted white and Asian students.
Admitted female students also had lower MCAT scores than admitted male students.
As part of the settlement reached this month, Stewart agreed not to apply for school or employment at Texas Tech and to withdraw his statements.
In return, Tech denied Stewart’s discrimination claims and pledged NOT to consider race in future admissions.
…“America First Legal is leading the national crusade against illegal ‘equity’ policies that punish citizens based on sex or skin color,” said Stephen Miller in 2023 about the medical school lawsuits.
“Decisions about who gets to be a doctor — with power over life and death — should be made based solely on merit.”
Miller is the founder of AFL and currently serves as President Donald Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy.
“Following the science means nothing if it doesn’t mean making objective determinations based on results,” Miller continued.
“When you or a loved one shows up in an emergency room, all you care about is getting the best treatment possible — not whether the Hospital’s VP of Equity has fulfilled a quota.”
…In 2024, Senate Bill 17 eliminated DEI-related offices, hiring practices, and programming in Texas public institutions of higher education.
Texas’ public universities are overseen by boards of regents appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott and confirmed by the Texas Senate.