Why Do Red State Policymakers Fund DEI Required Course in Public Universities?
No one is surprised that the cows in the Chik-fil-A ads advocate for eating more chicken. It would be shockingly irrational, however, if the chickens joined the campaign by paying the cows to carry their “Eat Mor Chikin” signs. Yet, this is exactly what Republican state legislators in 10 conservative states are doing when they devote several hundred million dollars each year to pay for diversity, equity, and inclusion required courses in their states’ public universities.
According to a new study by the Goldwater Institute, 30 states have public universities that require their students to take at least one course on “diversity, equity, and inclusion” to graduate. Ten of those states have Republican-controlled state legislatures, including Texas, Ohio, and North Carolina. It makes sense that state legislators in California or Massachusetts support having their public universities indoctrinate students in the radical ideology that informs the DEI movement, but it is unclear why those in red states stand for this and even allocate public funds to pay for it.
The Goldwater Institute offers very conservative estimates that likely understate the true cost to taxpayers and students of these required DEI courses, placing the price tab at $1.8 billion over a four-year period. In the 10 states with Republican-controlled legislatures, the total is over a half billion dollars.
State legislators have historically been inclined to defer to the faculty and administrators who work for public universities to determine how those institutions are operated. While public universities are public agencies, much like the Department of Motor Vehicles, they have grown accustomed to receiving taxpayer dollars without having to answer to the people or their elected officials for how those funds are used.
The days of handing cash without string to public universities are coming to an end. Several states, including Florida, Texas, and Iowa have adopted measures to eliminate DEI bureaucracies in their public universities. But so far, only Florida has taken the extra step to review the general education requirements to ensure that DEI-infused courses are not required for students to graduate. Doing so would not only spare students being compelled to endure political indoctrination, but it would also save taxpayers and students several hundred million dollars each year.
Importantly, the Florida law only applies to general education requirements for graduation. If students wish to take electives with more politicized content, that is their choice. And because these courses would still be available as electives, the state is not interfering with the freedom of faculty to develop courses and teach their content.
The issue is who should determine what constitutes a general education required of all students in publicly operated universities. The requirements for particular majors might best be left to experts within those fields, but the broader vision for what makes someone an educated person is ultimately a political question in state universities that has to be reviewed by elected officials. And since opinions about what is required for someone to be considered educated are likely to vary, it would be reasonable to expect that elected officials in California and Texas would favor different general education requirements.
What is not reasonable is to have a single vision of what constitutes a college-educated person imposed on all public universities by the increasingly radical employees of those institutions. Faculty and administrators in public universities work for taxpayers and their elected representatives. It is time for red-state policymakers to remind them of this fact and reassert control over the general education requirements of those universities.
