Texas may soon become the second state to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs from public colleges.
In early May, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation to prevent colleges and universities there from using federal or state funds on DEI programs. Like on many other issues, Florida and DeSantis have demonstrated that just a few men with courage can reveal a majority.
It turns out that by following through with a clear and directed agenda, Republicans in the Sunshine State have made themselves more popular with more people. Other red states are following in the wake of that success.
On Friday, the Texas House of Representatives voted 83-60 to pass legislation that would ban DEI programs and offices in state colleges and universities.
After the Texas Senate originally passed the bill last month, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick issued a statement:
The Texas Senate has now passed the strongest pushback on woke policies in higher education nationwide. For far too long, academia has been poisoned by woke policies and faculty seeking to indoctrinate our students.
Professors did not believe we would push back on their advances, but they were wrong. Students should be taught how to think critically, not what to think.
Democrats got some concessions in the House. For instance, the final text of the bill, according to the Texas Tribune, “requires the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to conduct an annual study into the impact of banning DEI offices, allows universities to make ‘reasonable efforts’ to re-assign employees in DEI offices to new positions with similar pay, and shifts the day the bill goes into effect back by three months to Jan. 1.”
The bill will now go back to the Senate for approval of the House amendments to the legislation.
Unsurprisingly, Democrats are apoplectic.
“Diversity is not a threat. Equitable access to education is not a threat. Inclusion is not a threat,” state Rep. Victoria Neave Criado, D-Dallas, said during debate on the bill on Friday, according to the Austin American-Statesman. “We turn our cheek away from the real threats that our communities face—the threats of gun violence, threats of poverty, housing insecurity, the threat of illiteracy.”
The idea that these DEI administrative cliques at schools aren’t just another way to promote and enforce ideological conformity is laughable. What they promote is a threat to our free society.
It’s such crap in the workplace , my company does it so I slow way down and stop doing my job