On April 9, nonprofit Defending Education, also known as Parents Defending Education, filed a complaint with the federal Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights over UW-Madison’s Lawton Undergraduate Minority Retention Grant program. Though only UW-Madison is named in the complaint, the Lawton grant law applies to all Universities of Wisconsin schools and has been codified in state law for more than 40 years.
The Lawton grant, which provides up to $4,000 annually for members of some minority groups for up to four years of their college education, was created in 1985 to help improve graduation and retention for in-state students. Qualifying races and ethnicities include those who are Black, Hispanic, Indigenous and of specific Southeastern Asian heritage, including those from the nations of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
In the lawsuit, a group of Wisconsin taxpayers — including some from Madison — argue the grant program is discriminatory and violates the equal protection clauses in the U.S. and Wisconsin constitutions by narrowing eligibility based on race.
Wisconsin’s Second District Court of Appeals sided with WILL and the taxpayers in a February decision, determining the program is unconstitutional.
“If only white and Asian students were eligible for the … grant program — obviously then automatically excluding Black American, Hispanic and American Indian students — such a program would not withstand constitutional scrutiny for two seconds, and properly so,” the unanimous decision, written by Judge Mark Gundrum, says.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul then filed a petition last month asking the state Supreme Court to weigh in.
