After a heated discussion at an El Paso County Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday about race-based college admissions, a Colorado Springs nonprofit focused on educational achievement did not receive proposed grant funding.

The commissioners ultimately approved $475,000 in funding split among eight nonprofits after reviewing an advisory committee’s recommendations and hearing from some applicants, such as Catholic Charities and Peak Education. The advisory committee recommended Peak Education receive $35,000 for its student mentoring that starts in middle school and aids students and their families through college.

Commissioner Carrie Geitner questioned Peak Education CEO Carlos Jimenez sharply during the meeting about his nonprofit’s position on the 2023 Supreme Court decision to end race-based decisions in college admissions. The nonprofit has a statement on its website calling the decision unfortunate and for investment in programs to support diversity in college admissions.

Geitner called the statement an “an encouragement of racism in college applications.”

“I am curious why you guys are encouraging what is essentially racism?” she asked Jimenez.

She later stated she would oppose any funding for the nonprofit and called for a stand-alone vote on the issue.

“We have to stop looking at people by the color of their skin,” she said, saying the focus should be on merit.

Jimenez told her that, as a former college admissions officer, knowing a student’s race was a helpful tool in understanding the person’s background. College admissions have to account for how a person will contribute to the school as a whole and to separate a person from their race is challenging, he explained in an interview.

While the Supreme Court decision was focused on the processes of some of the most selective colleges in the country, such as Harvard University, he expected the national media would promote the idea that some students would have more trouble getting into school, so the Peak Education statement was meant as a response to that, he explained.

“Really what our message was, and was intended to be, was, ‘We need to wrap around our students even more and we are here for you,'” he said. The nonprofit provides mentoring in School Districts 2, 3, 11 and 14 and serves 87% students of color, a demographic that matches the schools that it works in, he said.

Merit can also have multiple forms.

“Is merit being homeless and getting a B?” Jimenez said.

The nonprofits mentorship program selects students based on their potential to help excel beyond what they are currently achieving, he said, in an interview.

“We are definitely not turning away White students.”

Commissioner Holly Williams floated increasing Peak Education’s funding to $50,000, because it was in line with the goal of easing causes and conditions of poverty. She pointed out that the nonprofit works in Harrison School District 2, a school with a high level of poverty.

Commissioners Cami Bremer and Longinos Gonzalez also said they supported the local mission of Peak Education and would like to see it receive funding.

As the commissioners worked through several options for splitting up the funding, including distributing $50,000 that Springs Rescue Mission declined, the amount dedicated to Peak Education dropped to $20,000. With three votes, the funding would have passed.

However, Jimenez declined the funding, because it was not enough to justify all the time the nonprofit would have had to dedicate to tracking the outcomes for the work it would have funded, he said.

The money was then reallocated to Mt. Carmel, which received $50,000.

After the decision, Jimenez said the nonprofit would be fine financially, but that the county commissioners showed a lack of commitment to positive educational outcomes and economic vitality.

Normally, the nonprofit has success bringing together conservatives and liberals around a shared goal of students finding a path to a well-paid career through college, trade school and the military, he said.

“It seems like Commissioner Geitner had an agenda that she was trying to carry out. … Our students were a victim of that agenda,” Jimenez said.

This story has been updated to remove a reference to Holly William’s husband applying to Harvard University for law school. The commissioner misspoke when describing his experience. He was accepted as an undergraduate, despite race-based preferences.