This year, six states, one of which has a Democratic governor, have banned or prohibited the use of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in public colleges and universities.
DEI in higher education has been controversial for several years, with Republicans frequently opposing it and critics, such as civil rights attorney Devon Westhill, describing it as a “industry that pushes a left-wing, far-left ideological orthodoxy in essentially every area of American life.”
Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, and Utah will all prohibit or limit the use of such teaching or use in the application process in their state’s education system by 2024.
In January, Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed legislation prohibiting institutions from engaging in “discriminatory practices” such as “that an individual, by virtue of the individual’s personal identity characteristics, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other individuals with the same personal identity characteristics.”
The anti-DEI law also prohibited schools from implementing any policy, procedure, practice, program, office, initiative, or required training relating to “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
SB 129 was signed into law by Alabama’s Republican Governor Kay Ivey in March. It outlaws certain DEI offices, as well as the “promotion, endorsement, and affirmation of certain divisive concepts in specific public settings.”
The law outlaws “divisive concepts,” like “that any individual should accept, acknowledge, affirm, or assent to a sense of guilt, complicity, or a need to apologize on the basis of his or her race, color, religion, sex, ethnicity, or national origin” along with “that meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist.”
The legislation also mandated that restrooms be used according to biological sex rather than gender identity, and that public institutions of higher education “authorize certain penalties for violation.”
Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly allowed legislation prohibiting postsecondary educational institutions from engaging in certain DEI-related activities to become law without her signature. The bill, which passed in April, imposes a $10,000 fine on any public institution that uses DEI practices in faculty hiring or student enrollment processes.
“While I have concerns about this legislation, I don’t believe that the conduct targeted in this legislation occurs in our universities,” Kelly wrote in her bill passage.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, signed an education-funding bill in May that included provisions to limit DEI in schools, just months after the state’s board of education began to reduce such practices in higher education.
The bill prohibits “any effort to promote, as the official position of the public institution of higher education, a specific, widely contested opinion referencing unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, transgender ideology, microaggressions, group marginalization, antiracism, systemic oppression, social justice, intersectionality, nee-pronouns, heteronormativity, disparate impact, gender theory, racial privilege, sexual privilege, or any related
Idaho is the latest state to rule that institutions may not “require specific structures or activities related to DEI.”
In December, the Idaho Board of Education unanimously approved a resolution requiring institutions to “ensure that no central offices, policies, procedures, or initiatives are dedicated to DEI ideology” and that no employee or student is required to declare gender identity or preferred pronouns.”
Other states, including Florida, Texas, and Tennessee, have previously banned the use of DEI in higher education.
