| By Big Radio News Staff |
Beloit Schools is apparently yanking a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion-based scholarship program for budding teachers.
It comes as the district faces legal threats from a statewide legal group over claims the program promotes racial discrimination.
Cara Tolliver is a lawyer for the conservative legal advocacy group Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. Earlier this year, Tolliver’s group sent Beloit School District a demand letter threatening to sue over Beloit’s “Grow-Your-Own Multicultural Teacher Scholarship Program.”
Tolliver says the scholarship’s eligibility criteria requires applicants be among a racial or ethnic minority. That’s to help the district cultivate more teachers who are Black and Hispanic.
Tolliver says her law group believes a Supreme Court opinion last year on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion makes it clear that such race- or ethnicity-based requirements amount to “discrimination” and are “unconstitutional.”
She says Beloit School District has notified the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty that it’s now backing away from the scholarship’s race-based criteria and shelving the program while it overhauls its eligibility requirements.
Tolliver says Beloit Schools tells her group it intends not to award any new scholarships under the current, race-based guidelines. And she says the district says it intends to retool parts of the scholarship to get rid of all the race-based criteria.
The “grow-your-own” program awards Beloit students scholarships if they commit to return to the district to teach.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty’s demand comes at a time when Beloit and other public school districts are seeing a troubling shortage in applicants for teaching positions.
Tolliver says she “commends” school districts who’d have “grow your own” scholarship programs, but she says the scholarships should be open to anybody regardless of their race or other factors.
Janesville School District has a similar program. But so far, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty has only targeted Beloit’s program.
Tolliver says it’s possible her group could approach other school districts or groups over similar programs. She calls Beloit’s scholarship program “low-hanging fruit” because she says its criteria and guidelines for eligibility are overtly race- and ethnicity-based.
According to census data, 22% of Beloit schools students are Black, and 35% are Hispanic.
That’s compared to the white student population in Beloit schools, which makes up just under 33% of the total.
Big Radio News was unable to reach Beloit School District officials for comment on the district’s scholarship program or its communications with the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.
