Wisconsin watchdog blows whistle on school district’s anti-white discrimination

A Wisconsin watchdog has blown the whistle on a local school district’s scholarship program for excluding white applicants.

Since 2021, the School District of Beloit (SDB) has had a “Grow Your Own (GYO) Multicultural Teacher Scholarship Program” for the purpose of helping minority students pursue a career in education.

But critics say the program is unconstitutional.

“The District’s race-based GYO program is patently unconstitutional and illegal,” Cara Tolliver, associate counsel at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), said in a press release.

“Given the ongoing teacher shortage, the District should be welcoming all qualified scholarship candidates, not foreclosing teaching incentives on the irrelevant and unlawful basis of a human being’s skin pigmentation or ethnic make-up.” 

On its website, the district laments the fact that only 16% of its educators are considered minorities – African American, Indian/Alaskan, Asian or Hispanic/Latino – while nearly 70% of students fit into those categories.  

SDB plans to change those statistics by helping minority Beloit students become educators in the hope they’ll return to their alma mater. In a presentation to the school board, SDB even encouraged school staff to donate to the program – offering donors admission into a raffle to win an extra day off.  

However, WILL accused the program of being hostile to white students and educators.  

“While the idea of a public school district ‘growing’ new teachers may be quite laudable, what is not laudable – or even legal – is the GYO program’s race-based animus and eligibility criteria,” reads a letter from WILL to SDB.  

“The District is a public entity, receives federal and state government funding, and is accordingly subject to numerous, longstanding anti-discrimination prohibitions that forbid the District from engaging in discrimination on the basis of race, color, ethnicity and national origin.”  

WILL says it has heard complaints from Beloit community members about other racial discrimination too. One such incident was the segregation of black and non-black students during a middle-school language arts class.  

Other school districts across the nation also have been accused of anti-white racism. One white New Jersey superintendent was fired for opposing hiring practices that promoted black and Haitian educators and disparaged Orthodox Jews. And a California history teacher sued his own teachers’ union for allowing only minority applicants to the union’s executive board.  

While some studies claim minority students learn more from minority or same-race teachers, WILL warns such policies – and programs such as Beloit’s – hearken back to the “separate but equal” approach that promotes all types of discrimination.  

The group asks SDB to end its race-based eligibility requirements or else face a complaint under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.