Senate committee advances bill to expand scholarships for teachers of color

The Minnesota Senate Education Finance Committee voted to recommend passage of Senate File 3128 and refer it to the Senate Committee on Higher Education after testimony from educators and scholarship recipients.

The bill, carried in committee by Chair Senator Kunish, would codify and expand programs intended to increase the number of teachers of color and American Indian teachers in Minnesota. "Representation and lack of representation really does matter," Kunish said in presenting the bill, adding that previous versions of the initiative have drawn bipartisan support.

Supporters told the committee the programs help prospective teachers complete their preparation and enter classrooms. Tracy Byrd, Minnesota’s 2024 Teacher of the Year, said she benefited from an urban teacher preparation pathway and described the role models she encountered. "Without that program, I am not in front of you right now," Byrd said. Ava Gallegos, a scholarship recipient and graduate student training to teach in a dual-immersion program, said the award made continuing her degree possible. "This program has not only changed my life, but ... will impact many students who will see teachers who look like them," Gallegos told the committee. Liddy Latrell, an elementary and special education teacher candidate at the University of Minnesota Duluth, said scholarship support made it possible for her to persist through multiple jobs and financial strain to complete her preparation.

Committee discussion touched on legal questions and federal risk. Senator Croon raised the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and a February 14, 2025 letter from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, saying programs using racial preferences could face strict scrutiny and risk loss of federal funds. Kunish and other supporters rejected that characterization for this program, emphasizing its focus on recruitment and support rather than admissions preference. "This isn't a racial preference. This is making sure that we are providing students with role models," Kunish said.

The bill text presented to the committee would extend a previously time-limited scholarship structure, increase the period over which a grant can be used from two to four years and codify the Minnesota Aspiring Teachers of Color Scholarship program in statute. Committee testimony included these quantitative figures: in 2017 teachers of color and Indigenous teachers made up 3.8% of the state’s teaching workforce; the present figure cited to the committee was 7.3%. The transcript testimony also described student demographics rising from about 30% students of color or Indigenous in 2017 to 39% in the most recent count. The bill document before the committee included a funding proposal discussed in testimony of $10,000,000 per fiscal year to fund roughly 1,000 scholarships annually and a referenced pilot appropriation of $3,000,000 in each of the next two fiscal years.

Chair Kunish moved that Senate File 3128 be recommended to pass and referred to the Committee on Higher Education. The committee conducted a voice vote. A committee record of roll-call tallies was not taken during the hearing; the chair announced the bill would be referred to higher education.

The bill will now go to the Senate Committee on Higher Education for further consideration.