Some Republican-led states are weighing stricter bans on diversity, equity and inclusion lessons at public colleges as President Trump threatens to withhold federal funding from institutions that hide it.
Officials in West Virginia, Iowa, Indiana, Texas and Ohio recently considered or advanced policies that go beyond dozens of earlier laws banning DEI offices and positions at public campuses in GOP-led states. The new measures would also limit what college faculty and staff can say about racial inequality and gender identity.
In Ohio, the state Senate voted Feb. 12 to pass a bill that would purge programs, training sessions and even scholarships that use DEI “in any manner.”
The Buckeye Institute, a conservative Columbus think tank that supports the legislation, expects it to pass the Ohio General Assembly, despite the fact an earlier version failed to gain enough support.
“This legislative effort began before the Executive Orders by President Trump, but the new EOs do put wind in the sails of the legislature,” said Greg R. Lawson, a Buckeye research fellow. “As I testified before the state Senate committee hearing, the legislation is needed to confront administrative bloat, prevent unfair speech codes, and improve the ideological and academic diversity in Ohio’s higher education system.”
Indiana’s Senate passed a bill on Feb. 6 that would bar “faculty and staff” from “promoting, embracing, or endorsing” DEI and allow the state’s attorney general to fine dissenting institutions up to $250,000. It must pass the GOP-controlled House and be signed by the state’s Republican governor to become law.
In Iowa, which banned DEI offices at state campuses last year, a proposed bill would further proscribe “any curriculum or other material that teaches identity politics or is based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, or privilege are inherent” in public institutions.
Meanwhile, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed an executive order last month forbidding mandatory faculty training in any program that “encourages the granting of preferences based on one person’s particular race, color, sex, ethnicity, or national origin over that of another.”
According to experts interviewed by The Washington Times, the latest proposals will face an uphill battle in the court system if they become law.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a Philadelphia free speech group that opposes the West Virginia order, said it unconstitutionally limits classroom discussion and violates the First Amendment right of professors to express their views.
“The government has a much stronger legal claim to legitimate authority over institutions than over professors,” said Tyler Coward, FIRE’s lead counsel for government affairs. “The academic freedom argument that exists for faculty members doesn’t exist for administrative staff.”
By contrast, Mr. Coward said a Texas law eliminating DEI programs that took effect last year is “unlikely to be successfully challenged” because it states explicitly that it doesn’t apply to faculty.
Since Mr. Trump returned to office, however, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signaled his support for additional legislation banning DEI at every level of public education.
“We must also expand the ban on DEI in our public universities,” Mr. Abbott said at his annual State of the State address on Feb. 9. “We must purge it from every corner of our schools and return the focus to merit.”
Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law in Houston, said the right of professors to teach DEI in class has been in tension with the right of lawmakers to shut down DEI programs since the Supreme Court rejected race-based college admissions in 2023.
“I think the Trump Administration, and the states, will have to carefully navigate these two concerns,” Mr. Blackman said.
Trump card
At the federal level, the Trump administration has encouraged states to purge DEI from college courses and faculty training by threatening to withhold federal funds from defiant institutions.
Mr. Trump signed an executive order on his Jan. 20 inauguration day that directed all federal agencies to eliminate DEI programs and positions “under whatever name they appear.”
On Monday, the Department of Education sent a “Dear Colleague” letter warning colleges to cease using “racial preferences and stereotypes” within 14 days or risk the loss of federal funding.
The letter accused race-based “admissions, financial aid, hiring, training, and other institutional programming” of fostering reverse discrimination against White and Asian students in past years.
Attorney Ilya Shapiro, a libertarian constitutional law scholar at the Manhattan Institute, said the Trump administration has made it harder for colleges “to get away with simply renaming their DEI offices or defying the Supreme Court’s ban on racial preferences.”
“There may be legal challenges to slow this down, but I don’t see how it can be stopped,” Mr. Shapiro said. “The only problem is that it’s all being done by completely lawful executive action, which can be reversed once a Democrat wins the White House.”
Amy Reid, a senior manager at the free speech group PEN America, said it’s hard to see anti-DEI measures surviving the Trump administration.
“What these state and federal policies have in common is that they’re not popular and that they share a similar goal to shut down the free exchange of ideas on college and university campuses,” said Ms. Reid, a former faculty chair at New College of Florida.
State bans
According to higher education insiders, the survival of Mr. Trump’s anti-DEI policies could hinge on the ability of Republican-led states to enact and enforce them over the next four years.
Other states that have banned DEI at public colleges over the past two years include Alabama, Idaho, Florida, North Dakota and Utah.
Critics say the DEI bans hurt Black and Hispanic students from disadvantaged backgrounds, who traditionally struggle to finish college.
“Lawmakers claim they want to promote ’merit,’ but their actions are rolling back decades of progress in making education more inclusive,” said Eugene Dilan, a California-based consultant specializing in equity, inclusion and diversity. “The U.S. is rapidly becoming more diverse, and eliminating DEI initiatives will harm students’ ability to navigate and thrive in that reality.”
Peter Wood, president of the conservative National Association of Scholars, noted the difficulty of eliminating DEI completely.
“Though they are unpopular with the general public, DEI programs have entrenched support on campus from administrators, DEI staff, and their grievance-minded acolytes,” said Mr. Wood, a former university administrator who testified in favor of the Ohio bill. “That’s why interventions by state legislatures are necessary.”
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.