(The Center Square) – A group of Wisconsin lawmakers are looking to change race-based higher education programs to programs that apply to disadvantaged students.
The bill requires that race, ethnicity, origin, gender, sexual orientation or religion are not used to determine eligibility and instead the term disadvantaged is used, meaning those who experience unfavorable economic, familial, geographic, physical or other personal hardship.
Several members of the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities said they would approve if there was an amendment on the Assembly floor to further limit the definition of disadvantaged.
The committee approved Assembly Bill 669 with a 6-5 vote on Tuesday.
The changes would apply to the state’s minority teacher loan program, minority undergraduate aids and the minority enrollment at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Marquette University School of Dentistry administered by the Higher Education Aids Board.
In the University of Wisconsin system, it would apply to minority and disadvantaged student programs and Lawton grants. At the state’s technical college, the change would apply to the minority student participation and retention plan and grants and to incentive grants.
None of the entities impacted said that the changes would cost them more money to implement. Wisconsin’s technical colleges, for instance, said that it would change the reporting requirements for programs but that would be a one-time change.
“These modifications to data collection and reporting are expected to be one-time administrative costs that can be absorbed within the agency budget,” the group said in a fiscal estimate. “Similarly, technical college districts will incur administrative costs associated with modifying their reporting on the plan, but these costs are expected to be minimal given most of the data collection takes place at the system level.”
The bill would have to pass both the Assembly and Senate and then be signed into law by Gov. Tony Evers in order to be implemented.
