‘Absolute garbage’: Critics ridicule massive bill signed by Walz that boosts ‘race-based’ teacher training

(Daily Caller News Foundation) – Gov. Tim Walz signed off on a sprawling budget bill containing programs aiming to increase the number of “diverse” teachers in schools. Yet experts are skeptical that the programs will yield positive outcomes for students, characterizing the effort as an example of “race-based decision-making” that strips merit from the classroom.

The Grow Your Own Grant Program, funded by the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE), provides a “pathway” for adults and secondary students to obtain professional teaching licenses through scholarships and specific board-approved preparation programs. Experts panned the programs as being “unconstitutional” and noted that a child’s ability to learn has nothing to do with the skin color of their teacher.

“Sometimes it’s just political machine building,” Doug Seaton, founder and president of the Upper Midwest Law Center, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Sometimes it’s payback to your cronies and supporters, but whatever it is, it’s plain or raw, and it’s unconstitutional.”

Funding for the program was approved as part of the state’s supplemental education bill, which Walz signed into law on May 18, 2024.

The “Grow Your Own Pathway for Adults” offers school districts funding to have “teacher preparation programs,” but grant recipients are required to use 80% of the funds towards scholarships to enable employees that are “of color or American Indian” to get involved in the preparation programs. These are aimed at individuals pursuing a teaching license.

“Increasing the diversity of educators in the classroom benefits all students,” an MDE webpage that provides a description of the Grow Your Own Grant Program says.

Another “pathway,” carved out for secondary students, offers “direct support including wrap-around services” and scholarships for high school graduates that are American Indian or individuals “of color” to enter into a board-approved teaching program at a Minnesota college or university, according to the website. Applicants for the grant must be certain that the percentage of students that are “of color or American Indian” taking part in the program is greater or the same as the school district’s.

“You focus on merit, you focus on outcomes, and that is the thing that should be done,” Seaton told the DCNF. “We think focusing on who our elected representatives are and whether they’re prepared to undertake this kind of race-based decision making. If they are, then they’re the wrong representatives of our point of view, and they should be replaced.”

Developing new teachers is a good thing if it is non-discriminatory, Don Daugherty, senior counsel, litigation for the Defense Freedom Institute, told the DCNF. However, he noted that it seems like there is a push for “monochromatic classrooms” in the state, with the program being an example.

“That’s [Minnesota grants] just not right under our Constitution,” Daugherty told the DCNF. “I don’t think color of skin of a teacher is anywhere near as important as whether they’re actually good on their merits, you know, being able to teach kids.”

The “Minnesota Aspiring Teachers of Color Scholarship” program, which was established by the Minnesota Legislature in 2021, received a one-time appropriation in the educational supplemental signed into law by Walz in May 2024. The program requires applicants to be a “person of color or American Indian,” offers up to $10,000 a year for full-time students and has a lifetime maximum of $25,000, according to the Minnesota Office of Higher Education (OHE).

Funds are earmarked for undergraduate and graduate students preparing to become teachers who fall under “racial or ethnic groups underrepresented in the state’s teacher workforce,” according to OHE.

“The insinuation that skin color is the determinant as to whether a child will learn from that teacher is absolute garbage,” Rhyen Staley, researcher for Parents Defending Education, told the DCNF.

After the Supreme Court struck down race-based admissions in 2023, several race-based scholarships have faced recent litigation. In July, Indiana University faced a complaint, claiming that the university had multiple “discriminatory” scholarships, Indiana Daily Student reported.

“Schools need to spend less time focused on racially divisive programming, both for teachers and for the students, and direct that energy to teach them to read and do math so that they can get themselves to a place where they can be functional citizens,” Staley told the DCNF.

Walz’s office didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment, and the Harris-Walz campaign also didn’t respond. The MDE didn’t provide comment by the time of publication.