The Trump administration has formally launched the fiscal year (FY) 2026 eligibility process for the Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP) and potentially other Title III programs. The notification should appear in the Federal Register on March 24.
The long-anticipated announcement has implications for other institutional aid programs. The FY 2026 education appropriations bill gives President Trump flexibility to transfer funding between the institutional aid programs rather than fund each program at the level indicated in the bill, which was crafted in reaction to a series of spending disputes between Congress and the administration in FY 2025. Not all these disputes have been partisan.
More specifically, the executive branch may transfer funds provided for Minority Serving Institutions programs – programs that the administration maintains are unconstitutional – into other institutional aid programs, most prominently SIP. These combined institutional aid funds amount to more than $430 million in the current fiscal year, a substantial sum. (For context, the SIP, Title III-A program is currently funded at $102 million; Hispanic Serving Institutions [HSI] received $259 million.)
It is possible, though not at all certain, that in FY 2026 the entire $430 million will all be made available through the Strengthening Institutions Program. The competition for those funds hasn’t been announced yet, but hopefully that will come as soon as possible.
The eligibility notice may hint at this outcome. Previous years’ eligibility notices specifically name all the Title III and V programs to which they pertain. This year’s notice theoretically leaves the door open for all the Title III programs to be funded, but it only mentions SIP by name. The notice makes no mention of Title V (HSI programs).
In other respects, the eligibility notice itself is consistent with earlier announcements, though some details previously provided in the notice will now be available online. This includes the all-important waiver process through which many community colleges become eligible for SIP.
The Education Department (ED) will hold an FY26 Eligibility Technical Assistance webinar on April 1. Visit ED’s Eligibility website later this week for registration information.
