The Minority Teachers for Illinois Scholarship Program violates the 14th Amendment, alleges the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) in its Tuesday complaint on behalf of the American Alliance for Equal Rights in the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois. The racial criteria included in the program have been “excluding students from a state-funded scholarship program because of their race” since its inception, per PLF’s press release.
The Minority Teachers for Illinois Scholarship Program is not a private initiative; it is funded directly by appropriations from the state budget. The program received $1.9 million, $4.2 million, and $7 million from Illinois taxpayers in fiscal years 2022, 2023, and 2024, respectively. Illinois Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Highlights reports that the program is set to receive $8 million.
Illinois’ teacher demographics do not reflect those of its students: 6.2 percent of Illinois teachers were black and 8.4 percent were Hispanic while 16.5 percent of Illinois students were black and 27.5 percent were Hispanic in 2023. The scholarship program was established by a 1992 Illinois state law to address this disparity.