The News: The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) has filed a lawsuit against the Wisconsin Higher Educational Aids Board (HEAB) over the Minority Teacher Loan Program (MTL), which provides loan forgiveness only for minority teachers. We argue that the current program illegally excludes qualified students from taxpayer aid based solely on race.

The Quote: WILL Deputy Counsel Rebecca Furdek stated, “Wisconsin cannot decide who receives taxpayer-funded educational opportunities based upon the color of their skin. By imposing this race-based barrier, the current program also undermines a near-universal goal of addressing Wisconsin’s teacher shortage. In response to our lawsuit, we hope Governor Evers and HEAB will follow the Constitution, end this discrimination, and ensure these opportunities are available to all Wisconsin students, regardless of race.”

Background: The MTL Program provides loans of up to $10,000 each year for three years to students pursuing teaching licenses in designated teacher-shortage areas. These taxpayer-funded loans can be fully forgiven for graduates who teach in qualifying Wisconsin schools. But even students who meet the program’s academic, licensing, and teaching requirements are ineligible unless they belong to racial or ethnic groups specified by state law. A student who would otherwise qualify is prevented from receiving up to $30,000 in taxpayer-funded assistance solely because of his or her race.

Legal Argument: Earlier this year, the Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously struck down Wisconsin’s Minority Undergraduate Retention Grant Program in Rabiebna v. Higher Educational Aids Board, reaffirming that the Equal Protection Clause requires equal treatment without regard to race, ancestry, origin, or ethnicity.

The race-based criteria used by Defendants in administering the Minority Teacher Loan Program are nearly identical to those that the Wisconsin Supreme Court recently declared unconstitutional as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.

The MTL Program has also never identified a compelling government interest to support race-based criteria. As the Wisconsin Supreme Court recently reaffirmed, the U.S. Supreme Court has only “recognized two compelling interests justifying the governmental use of racial classifications”: (1) avoiding race riots in prisons; and (2) “remediating specific identified instances of government-sanctioned discrimination.”

The Client: Citizens Defending Liberty is a membership association of Wisconsin taxpayers who want to see their money spent lawfully. As the Supreme Court of the United States and Wisconsin Supreme Court recently re-affirmed, the MTL program as its currently administered is unlawful.

Read More:

Complaint, September 2026

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