The U.S. Department of Education has moved to remove race-based eligibility criteria from the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program, officials said, prompting conservative plaintiffs to drop a lawsuit challenging the grant program. The McNair program, which distributed more than $60 million to colleges in fiscal 2024, is widely used to prepare low-income and historically underrepresented students for Ph.D. study. Ellen Keast, a department press officer, confirmed the agency will change regulations via rulemaking to replace race-specific criteria with racially neutral standards consistent with a recent Justice Department opinion. The decision ends a legal battle that had threatened a long-standing federal pipeline program and signals the department’s broader effort to rework targeted supports while keeping funds for first-generation and low-income students intact.