Now that Ohio lawmakers have opted to bar Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives in Ohio’s higher education institutions, they are considering legislation to ban it in the state’s public schools.
Senate Bill 113, which has been referred to the state Senate Education Committee, and House Bill 155, which has been referred to the House Education Committee, would ostensibly achieve the same objective if approved and signed into law. The bills would mandate that local boards of education adopt an anti-DEI policy within 90 days of the bill’s effective date.
“As we shape the future of education, we must ask ourselves: Are we preparing students to succeed based on their character, effort, and merit?” Ohio Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, said in prepared sponsor testimony. “Or are we reducing them to racial categories that determine their opportunities? Unfortunately, DEI does the latter, it prioritizes identity over ability, promotes racial preferences over fairness, and undermines the very ideals that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought for.”
Proponents of the measure say this legislation is necessary to ensure schools focus on their primary educational mission.
“Through legislation like this, we hope to cultivate an educational environment that promotes unity and harmony among students, focusing on our commonalities rather than differences,” Ohio Rep. Josh Williams, R-Sylvania Township, said in prepared sponsor testimony. “By treating all of our students and staff the same, we can allow our educators to focus on core academic subjects and ensure high-quality outcomes for every student in Ohio.
“It is time for Ohio to align with the current federal push to remove DEI initiatives from any type of public hiring process,” added Williams, who sponsored HB 155 alongside Ohio Rep. Beth Lear, R-Galena.
The Senate iteration has already had a second hearing and has drawn support from conservative parent groups.
DEI “is a racist and divisive ideology being pushed on innocent children with the goal of indoctrinating them into an anti-American, socialist agenda,” Darbi Boddy, a board member for Protect Ohio Children and the group leader for the Butler County Moms for America group, said in prepared testimony to the state Senate Education Committee. “It does not teach the value of hard work, discredits standing firm in one’s personal religious belief system, and undermines the commonality of being Americans, which unites us under one flag.
“DEI, a derivative of Critical Race Theory, is not just a curriculum but an environment created within a school district through avenues like Social Emotional Learning, required reading literature, class discussions, and restorative practices,” Boddy added. “It is extremely harmful and divisive to the victims of this ideological pedagogy.”
Unsurprisingly, the push has drawn opposition from Democrats in the state, who say the legislation doesn’t define DEI.
“If we don’t define what DEI is, how can we expect teachers to not mistakenly break the law?” state Rep. Sean Brennan, D-Parma, asked, according to the Ohio Capital Journal.
The measure is just the latest targeting DEI initiatives in the Buckeye State’s public institutions.
The newly enacted Senate Bill 1, the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act, which Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law in March, requires state higher education institutions to bar DEI orientation and training courses unless the institution submits a written request for an exception. The bill’s provisions take effect at the end of June, but several schools have already taken steps to nix their DEI offerings.
Ohio University in Athens announced it would close the school’s Division of Diversity and Inclusion, which it has had since 2018. Additionally, the University of Toledo said it plans to stop several low-enrollment undergraduate programs by 2025-26 as part of a “prioritization process” and to comply with the bill’s requirements.
