The Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) has lodged a complaint against the Minority Teachers for Illinois Scholarship Program, claiming that the program's racial criteria infringe upon the 14th Amendment.
According to the complaint filed on Tuesday on behalf of the American Alliance for Equal Rights in the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois, the program has been "excluding students from a state-funded scholarship program because of their race" since its establishment.
As reported by Reason.com, the Minority Teachers for Illinois Scholarship Program is not a private venture but is directly financed by the state budget. The program has received substantial funding from Illinois taxpayers over the years, with $1.9 million, $4.2 million, and $7 million allocated in fiscal years 2022, 2023, and 2024, respectively. The Illinois Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Highlights indicates that the program is slated to receive $8 million.
The program was conceived in 1992 to address the demographic disparity between Illinois' teachers and students. In 2023, only 6.2 percent of Illinois teachers were black and 8.4 percent were Hispanic, while the student population comprised 16.5 percent black and 27.5 percent Hispanic students. The program's mission is to encourage "academically talented Illinois minority students to pursue teaching careersand alleviate the teacher shortage crisis in this State." To achieve this, the program offers scholarships to cover the costs of qualifying higher education up to an annual maximum of $7,500, in return for a year of teaching in Illinois K-12 schools for each year of funding received.
Despite these efforts, Illinois continues to grapple with a teacher shortage. According to the 20232024 Educator Shortage Survey published by the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools, 4,096 teaching positions remained vacant, while 3,694 were filled through measures such as "hiring substitutes, hiring retired educators, combining classes, and increasing class sizes."
The Illinois statute governing the scholarship programs defines an eligible applicant as "a minority student who has graduated from high schooland has maintained a cumulative grade point average of no less than 2.5 on a 4.0 scale." The definition of a minority student includes five racial groups: American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. However, white applicants are explicitly excluded from the public scholarship program.
The American Alliance for Equal Rights has initiated the lawsuit on behalf of a white candidate who, "except for her raceis qualified, ready, willing, and able to apply to the Scholarship Program," according to the PLF complaint. PLF attorneys Samantha Romero and Erin Wilcox argue that by preventing "otherwise eligible applicants from applying fora Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship on the basis of their race," the program contravenes the 14th Amendment.
The program's racial discrimination extends beyond the application process. The statute stipulates that scholarship recipients must fulfill their teaching obligation "at a nonprofit Illinois public, private, or parochial preschool, elementary school, or secondary school at which no less than 30% of the enrolled students are minority students." Additionally, the law allocates "up to 3% of the amount appropriated for the program for each of the next 3 fiscal yearsto increasing awareness of the program and for the recruitment of Black male applicants," if the scholarship program does not expend at least 90 percent of its budget for three consecutive fiscal years.
Romero stated in an interview, "Illinois basically put up a sign that said that 'teachers are wanted, but disfavored races need not apply.'" While there is a debate over whether discriminatory intent is enough to trigger strict scrutiny in the absence of disparate aggregate impact, there is consensus that de jure discrimination, as practiced by the Minority Teachers for Illinois Scholarship Program, is unconstitutional. This case underscores the need for a balanced approach to addressing demographic disparities in education, one that respects individual rights and upholds constitutional principles.
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