It’s sad that after Brown v. Board of Education, this is a milestone. But it is.

Under pressure from the Trump administration, the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock is no longer considering the race and national origin of applicants seeking admission to its School of Medicine.

Health Sciences President Tedd Mitchell, who is also chancellor of the Texas Tech University System, signed an agreement in February with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to resolve a 2004 complaint and the office’s subsequent investigation.

That said, it’s probable that racial quotas will make a comeback anyway.

Race-neutral alternatives will be explored to enhance diversity, but if that doesn’t work the center will provide the required notice to the Office for Civil Rights that it plans to resume racial considerations.

Racial preferences today, racial preferences tomorrow, racial preferences forever.

But it is an important step. And it marks the Trump admin using the Department of Education the way that Obama’s people had. Obama’s people excelled at browbeating institutions into agreeing to settlements. I don’t especially like the tactic, but in an inferno, fighting fire with fire makes sense. And this is using civil rights education as it was billed, not as it’s been abused.

Now on to Yale.