An Iowa bill introduced Sunday would end higher education institutions’ diversity programs, prohibiting colleges from spending money on such efforts.
House File 616 would prohibit public higher education institutions governed by the Iowa Board of Regents from funding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts and would bar the universities from hiring DEI officers. The bill, introduced by the Iowa Committee on Education, would require the money that would have been spent on DEI efforts go towards merit scholarships for lower-income and middle-income students. (RELATED: ‘Racial Reckoning’: How US Universities Are Watering Down Standards In The Name Of ‘Diversity’)
“The bill also authorizes a student, faculty member or alumnus of a public institution of higher education alleging a violation of the bill’s provisions to bring a civil action for injunctive relief against the public institution of higher education to prohibit the public institution of higher education from continuing such violation,” the legislation stated.
Universities are not permitted to spend any grants, tuition, endowments and gifts on DEI policies, programming, training, activities and positions, the bill stated. Under the legislation, the state’s attorney general can oversee the universities efforts to axe diversity efforts and punish the schools if they fail to do so.
BREAKING: Iowa legislators have introduced a bill to abolish all DEI bureaucracies in the state’s public universities. The legislation would immediately terminate all administrative departments, plans, programs, and initiatives that promote left-wing racialist ideology. pic.twitter.com/oJAlMJ1VhW
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 5, 2023
The legislation comes among other education efforts within the state; the legislature is considering an Iowa bill that would prohibit teachers from giving lessons “relating to gender identity” in K-8 public and charter school classrooms. In January, Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed House Study Bill 1 into law, creating a school choice program that gives vouchers to students outside of the public school system.
“The Board of Regents opposes the bill,” Josh Lehman, Iowa Board of Regents senior communications director, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We have concerns with the bill’s language and impact, and will work with legislators directly to address them. We will continue to track the bill as it makes its way through the legislative process.”
The Iowa Committee on Education did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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