(The Center Square) – A Wisconsin group is taking aim at another state race-based program as the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty wrote a letter asking Gov. Tony Evers to end the Wisconsin Minority Teacher Loan Program.
The program offers loans to students enrolled in a program that would lead to a teacher’s license in a discipline that is defined as a teacher shortage area.
Part of the eligibility criteria includes that the teacher is part of a “minority population,” defined as a Black American, an American Indian or Alaskan native, a Hispanic, a person of Asian or Pacific Island origin, or a “person whose ancestry includes two or more races.”
“Wisconsin cannot decide who receives taxpayer-funded educational opportunities based upon the color of their skin. The Wisconsin Supreme Court just unanimously struck down a nearly identical race-based program,” WILL Deputy Counsel Rebecca Furdek said in a statement. “Governor Evers and HEAB should follow the Constitution, end this discrimination, and ensure these opportunities are available to all Wisconsin students, regardless of race.”
The request from WILL comes after the group fought for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to rule in June that a Wisconsin college grant program that sent financial aid to students based on specific race, national origin and ancestry cannot legally operate.
WILL then sued the state of Wisconsin over a $250 million supplier grant program that has criteria based upon race.
Most recently, the group filed another lawsuit over 20 race-based scholarships at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
