Following PLF’s Discrimination Suit, Pritzker Signs Bill Ending Illinois’ Race-Exclusive Scholarship
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker recently signed legislation rewriting the state’s scholarship rules—and abruptly ending a decades-old race-exclusive program. The change will moot a lawsuit led by a student member of the American Alliance for Equal Rights and represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation at no cost.
The law, House Bill 3065, which took effect November 21, struck racial classifications from scholarship eligibility in Illinois.
“Illinois cannot disqualify students from competing for a taxpayer-funded college scholarship because of their race,” said PLF attorney Samantha Romero-Drew. “Race-based discrimination is a blatant violation of the Equal Protection Clause.”
When Illinois lawmakers created the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship Program back in 1992, they sought to alleviate a real problem: a teacher shortage especially acute in Illinois classrooms.
The benefits were generous. Up to $7,500 a year could cover tuition, fees, room, board or commuter allowances, renewable for four years of full-time college enrollment. Recipients were required to teach in Illinois schools serving communities where at least 30% of students qualify as minorities: one year of service for each year of assistance they received. But there was a catch: the scholarship wasn’t made available to applicants of all races. The program’s stated goal was to recruit minority students into teaching careers at pre-kindergarten through high school levels.
Service requirements are common in state scholarship programs. Excluding applicants by race, however, is not.
Despite nonracial eligibility criteria—Illinois residency, minimum academic achievements, financial-need documentation—the program was closed to any students who were not from the preferred races: “African American/Black, Hispanic American, Asian American or Native American origin[.]”
PLF’s lawsuit argued that college costs burden all students and that Illinois’ race-exclusive gatekeeping shut out students who otherwise match the program’s stated mission. The legal claim is simple: The Constitution forbids the government from denying public benefits on the basis of race.
With Pritzker’s signature on the bill, voters, lawmakers and advocates no longer need to wait for a judicial holding; the state legislature answered the question itself and corrected Illinois’s law.
By signing House Bill 3065, Illinois chose a more dignified principle: scholarships may support future teachers to serve in communities of need, but the state will no longer exclude applicants through racial categorization.
Illinois can now pursue its goal of recruiting talented educators by expanding opportunity, not restricting it.
