Legislators from the Kansas Republican Party are thinking about outlawing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs on college campuses.
Unlike other states, Kansas’s legislators have crafted plans so they won’t have to agree on how to define DEI.
A week after the Senate approved a $25 billion budget proposal that would have required schools to stop offering DEI training, a vote on the proposed bill would prohibit colleges, universities, and technical schools from using DEI as a factor in hiring, promoting, or admitting students.
Although the measure employs that very wording, it also declares that institutions are not allowed to demand a statement regarding “any political ideology or movement.”
The proposal, which passed the House by a vote of 81-39, as reported by The Hill, would withhold more than $35 million from the state’s six institutions unless they report to Democratic Governor Laura Kelly and the leaders of the Republican-controlled legislature that they have discontinued the aforementioned programs.
Lastly, it would allow the state attorney general to impose fines on noncompliant schools of up to $10,000.
Like in other states, the topic has generated discussion on both political parties, particularly when they can’t agree on the definition of DEI.
“It’s hard for me to pass a bill to punish a university for doing something that we don’t define,” Rep. Tom Sawyer (D-Wichita) stated. “The words diversity, equity and inclusion to me, in themselves, are positive words.”
But Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins characterizes the bill as a straightforward test, asking whether a university demands ideological declarations from its staff, students, or job candidates. He believes that there is no requirement for everyone to agree on its definition.
“Everybody’s got a different definition,” Hawkins stated. “To get everybody to aspire to one definition is pretty difficult.”
Along with pushing higher education administrators to stop making decisions based on race, Sen. J.R. Claeys, a co-author of the budget proposal, claimed that it also complies with the Supreme Court’s 2023 rule abolishing affirmative action at colleges.
As an advisor to Republican state Attorney General Kris Kobach, Claeys asserts that threatening funds is the most effective method to force colleges to comply.
Nearly 22 states have proposed laws prohibiting or limiting DEI initiatives at colleges since July 2023.
Organizations and well-known individuals, such as the NAACP and NFL legend Emmitt Smith, who played for the University of Florida, have denounced the university’s recent decision to dissolve its entire DEI department and have called on Black student-athletes to abstain from participating in sports.
