The Kansas House approved a bill on Thursday to limit diversity-focused hiring at Kansas universities, making it the latest attempt to restrict DEI efforts in education.
The bill passed in the Kansas House of Representatives in an 81-39 vote on Thursday, with five lawmakers absent from the vote. The bill would prohibit the state’s universities, community colleges, or technical colleges from considering diversity, equity, or inclusion in their admissions, student aid, and hiring decisions.
The bill also would forbid postsecondary educational institutions from using any statement about “political ideology or movement” provided by the candidate when making admissions, educational aid, or employment decisions. Universities would also be prohibited from requesting or requiring such statements.
The vote comes almost a week after the Kansas Senate advanced a proposed $25 billion state budget, which contains a clause to compel universities to remove DEI requirements and mandatory DEI training, The Associated Press reported. The state’s six universities would need to confirm the elimination of these requirements in order to receive certain funding, as per The AP.
The provision will be discussed among negotiators during the final budget draft processes, per The AP.
“Instead of a merit-based approach, universities have chosen to embrace ideologies that discriminate against people who do not adhere to their orthodoxy,” State Rep. Steven Howe, the Republican lawmaker behind the legislation, said during a House proceeding Wednesday. “This legislation prohibits all loyalty oaths, litmus tests without regard to viewpoint or ideology.”
Calling it “constitutionally sound,” Howe said the legislation is “protective” of students and faculty rights.
The proposed legislation would also allow the state attorney general to impose fines of up to $10,000 on schools that do not comply with the rules, according to the bill text.
The definition of DEI is not clearly defined in the measure, some Kansas lawmakers argued, per the AP. Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins (R) pushed back on this, claiming the bill would instead create a basic test — if a university requires ideological statements from candidates — to avoid definition confusion, the news wire added.
Republican leaders in nearly two dozen states have sought to restrict DEI initiatives in schools, including in Alabama, where the state’s Republican-led Legislature passed a measure this week to ban state funding of DEI programs at public universities, local boards of education, and government agencies.
At least 22 states have introduced legislation concerning DEI efforts at universities as of July 2023, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Texas and Florida colleges have started terminating DEI positions and Florida state colleges are prohibited from using state or federal money to fund DEI programs.
