Non-Profit Law Firm Challenges Constitutionality Of Minority-Only Tuition Grant
Illinois is grant up to $7500 to each undergrad student towards tuition and expenses. Applicants must be members of favored minorities.
A non-profit law firm, Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) yesterday to challenge the race-based criteria used by the Illinois Student Assistance Corporation when awarding state-funded scholarships to future Illinois teachers.
According to a press release, the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship Program (MTI) awards scholarships of up to $7,500 per year for tuition, fees, commuter allowances, and room and board for up to four academic years of full-time college enrollment. With Illinois facing a severe teacher shortage, the MTI Scholarship Program is designed to encourage qualified Illinoisans to join the teacher ranks.
The MTI website reveals the eligibility requirements. Applicants must:
be a U.S. citizen or an eligible non-citizen or meet the “undocumented student” criteria of the RISE Act
be a resident of Illinois
be a minority student of either African American/Black, Hispanic American, Asian American or Native American origin, or a qualified bilingual minority applicant
be a high school graduate or hold a General Educational Development (GED) certificate
be enrolled or accepted for enrollment on at least a half-time basis as an undergraduate or graduate student at an Illinois institution of higher education, and:
Students must meet residency, academic, and financial standards, also. The Illinois state legislature has appropriated $8 million for the scholarship program.
“Illinois can offer assistance to young, aspiring teachers, but not when they exclude a significant number of applicants based on their skin color,” said PLF attorney Erin Wilcox. “The exclusion of non-minority applicants not only misses the mark on providing an equal opportunity for all future teachers, it violates the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.”
Represented at no charge by Pacific Legal Foundation, AAER is fighting back with a federal equal protection challenge to restore equal treatment and educational opportunity for all students, regardless of race.
The case is AAER v. Pritzker and filed in the Central District of Illinois.
The Pacific Legal Foundation was involved in the successful U.S. Supreme Court challenge to affirmative action in college admissions has sued Illinois over a minority scholarship program for aspiring teachers.