Kansas Governor Signs Bill Banning the Requirement of DEI-CRT Courses at Public Colleges
“We will be watching the implementation of these provisions closely”
We need this kind of policy in every state.
Higher Ed Dive reports:
Kansas governor signs bill to curb race-related instruction at public colleges
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly signed legislation Wednesday that will prohibit the state’s public colleges from requiring students to take “DEI-CRT” courses, a move that critics warn could censor classroom instruction.
The legislation is part of a wave of bills targeting college classroom instruction related to diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory, a decades-old academic framework that in part teaches that racism is systemic.
While the legislation leaves “DEI-CRT” courses undefined, it mandates the Kansas Board of Regents to adopt a definition by the end of July. The new policy prohibiting public colleges from mandating these courses for any programs must take effect for the 2028-29 academic year.
PEN America, a prominent free expression group, had called on Kelly to veto the provision, arguing it would limit classroom discussion related to race and gender.
“The passage and signing of this provision as part of Kansas’s budget bill is, sadly, proof of the dangerous normalization of educational censorship, even in a state with a democratic governor,” Amy Reid, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Learn program, said in a statement this week. “We will be watching the implementation of these provisions closely.”
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Comments
Not sure what the controversy is here. This bill doesn’t ban the courses, only requiring them.
It is interesting to note that ‘PEN America,’ mentioned above, styles itself a First Amendment advocacy group, but they advocate mandating students take certain courses. They lament not requiring those courses, likening it to censorship.
Are they upset because their mandatory indoctrination is being blocked? Or is it because if the courses aren’t required nobody would take them and eventually the courses would be eliminated and the instructors might eventually realize that their degree isn’t worth the paper its printed on in the real world?
Say we had a college course teaching good old-fashioned anti-black racism. Would Amy Reid think it was an unjustified intrusion into academic freedom for the state to do something about that?
At this point, any action related to DEI-CRT is meaningless. This drivel is built into the entire structure of academia, and only complete disassembly and reconstruction will eliminate it.
Amazingly twisted pseudo libertarianism on display here to label bans of mandatory leftist propaganda as censorship.