When students have teachers who look like them, they are more likely to score well on tests, consistently come to school and graduate.
Over the last 32 years, the Illinois General Assembly has, through the Minority Teachers of Illinois (MTI) Scholarship, played a key role in growing and strengthening Illinois’ educator workforce and, in turn, helping more pre-K-12 public school students realize their full potential.
Nearly 14,000 scholarships have been awarded to students of color who plan to teach in public schools — increasing diversity that decades of research have shown benefits all students.
So, it is particularly alarming as an elected official representing an incredibly diverse district in Aurora that this demonstrably successful program may be at risk due to a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality.
In October, the American Alliance for Equal Rights alleged that the scholarship violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
This lawsuit is part of a national effort to challenge race-conscious policies, even when the reasons for considering race are unambiguous and compelling. In spite of that, the plaintiffs are requesting the scholarship be permanently suspended.
Now more than ever, Illinois must make a strong and united show of support for MTI and the continued funding of this important effort.
In January, I was proud to vote for the passage of a bill that highlights the value and importance of MTI. It is my hope that my colleagues in the Illinois Senate will follow suit with their support of this important program.
Despite progress in Illinois, there is still a wide disparity in representation between teachers and their students. While students of color make up 54% of Illinois’ K-12 student population, teachers of color make up only 18% of the teacher workforce in the state.
On top of that, growth in student diversity is outpacing growth in teacher diversity: Over the past decade, the proportion of students of color has grown by 5 percentage points while the proportion of teachers of color has grown by only 4 percentage points.
It is clear that more work is needed to close gaps in representation to better meet student needs. MTI remains a critical lever for helping respond to that need.
With students of color representing 70% of all K-12 students in the 50th District of our state, ensuring all our students see themselves in their teachers is critically important to me. College affordability ranks among the most significant barriers to becoming a teacher, particularly for students from limited generational wealth, including students of color. The annual $7,500 MTI scholarship represents an evidence-driven strategy for helping level the playing field so that any student aspiring to enter the profession isn’t needlessly priced away from it.
Further, MTI helps address teacher shortage challenges, of which no state in this country is a stranger. MTI helps drive state resources to some of the places with the largest shortages and biggest gaps in representation, including schools serving students of color and bilingual classrooms, since scholarship recipients are required to teach in schools with significant racial/ethnic and linguistic diversity. Filling these gaps ensures that all students have access to fully licensed teachers, which is essential to students’ academic success.
As we consider what it takes to ensure that Illinois is one of the best places in the nation to raise a child, let us consider what that means, every day, in the classroom. Each of them deserves access to fully licensed, high-quality teachers who serve as role models and reflect their identities and experiences. In continuing to support MTI as a valuable state program that, backed by research, invests in strengthening our educator workforce, Illinois is opening the door to more growth and academic achievement for more Illinois students. It is an investment our state can more than afford to make and one that our students and the future of our state are counting on.
State Rep. Barbara Hernandez represents Illinois’ 50th District.
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