Lawmakers renew debate over bill banning race, gender from being college aid factors
MADISON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Lawmakers at the state Capitol Wednesday debated whether state colleges and universities should be barred from considering race or gender when determining if a student is eligible for aid.
Under the Republican bill, admission into programs, and tuition assistance that's aimed at disadvantaged students, could only consider the wealth of the student and their family.
Other factors, such as race, gender, sexual orientation and religion, could not be taken into consideration.
"There might be some people who suffered the effects of bad things in the past, but let's ask them if they're [currently] suffering [from] those bad things in the past," Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Green Bay), one of the bill's co-authors, said during Wednesday's hearing. "Rather than just making a blanket presumption about people."
Wimberger told the state Senate's Universities and Revenue Committee he was concerned too much aid was going to students from affluent families that only qualified because of race or gender.
Democrats questioned if Wimberger was concerned eliminating the consideration of race would worsen overall racial wealth and health disparities that exist in the state. State Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) cited the infant mortality rate; a Department of Health Services report found death rates among Black infants before their first birthday was three times higher than for white babies during a study that ran from 2019 to 2021.
"Not everything can be explained by wealth," Roys said. "And I guess the question is do we just have to suck it up and accept that as a society? Or should we say, no, it's not acceptable that Black children are many times more likely in their first year of life?"
Wimberger said he acknowledged the lingering effects of racism, but he maintained race-based programs and assistance in higher education would enable bad actors more than it'd help underserved people.
"[Racism] will never go away to a degree where we can manage it if what we do, fundamentally in our policies, is very consciously decide that a Black man ought to get what a Black man deserves and a white ought to get what a white man deserves," he said.
This exchange is from the hearing for a bill that'd ban universities from considering race/gender when awarding aid.
— A.J. Bayatpour (@AJBayatpour) January 31, 2024
Sen. Eric Wimberger: "One of the main effects this bill will have is it will put race hustlers out of business."
Sen. Jeff Smith asked him to define race hustler pic.twitter.com/cBa7S9e7yB
Mark Pitsch, a spokesman for the UW System, said in an email Wednesday the state's universities had been revisiting whether to use race as a factor in aid programs before a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision found race-based admissions at Harvard and the University of North Caroline were unconstitutional.
Pitsch said UW schools are still working with donors to review specific scholarships and decide whether to change the eligibility rules.
"Updating scholarships is not a process where changes can be made overnight," Pitsch said, "Because, in most cases, we must work with the donors, or where no donor is available, use other processes to make changes to scholarship criteria. This work is ongoing."
The bill passed on a party-line vote in the Assembly back in November. Should the full Senate pass the bill, it will go to the desk of Democratic Governor Tony Evers.
Evers is expected to veto the bill; in recent months, he's criticized GOP efforts to cut funding for positions related to diversity, equity and inclusion, commonly referred to as DEI.