Judge Probes Education Department Capacity for College Race Data

A federal judge expressed concerns Tuesday that the Education Department’s barebones staffing can ensure efficiency standards are met as it demands colleges hand over years worth of racial admissions data.

In a hearing on states’ challenge to the survey, US District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV of Massachusetts pressed a Department of Justice attorney on the fact that headcount at the agency’s National Office of Education Statistics, which oversees the college survey, used to be 100 but appears to be down to just three people.

“If the department isn’t going to exist ...