Idaho Bans ‘DEI Ideology’ in Higher Education, Protects Campus Speech and Debate
The Idaho State Board of Education banned “DEI ideology” in all of the state’s higher education institutions, which going forward will be required to adhere to “political neutrality” instead of indoctrinating students.
The College Fix reported that the board approved three resolutions last month, each targeting a different facet of left-wing educational control. Taken together, they require colleges and universities to “establish and maintain equality of opportunity for all students regardless of personal identity characteristics”; prohibit any offices, policies, or initiatives “dedicated to DEI ideology”; protect staff and students alike from being required to recognize “preferred pronouns”; require “political neutrality” of schools; require curriculum information be made available to the public; and more.
In addition, students and staff will be given instruction on campus free speech that may not be obstructed, and campuses are barred from engaging in viewpoint discrimination against guest speakers.
At the same time, individuals are not only allowed but encouraged to take stands, as “institutions should promote a culture that encourages and celebrates forums in which faculty, students, staff, and community members may express conflicting, controversial, or unpopular viewpoints.”
The news follows Boise State University and Idaho State University rolling back their own DEI (Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion) policies, and continues a national trend of state action against woke ideology in education.
More than 30 states have introduced legislation eliminating DEI programs from education as part of a broader push against so-called “woke ideology” spearheaded by Republicans such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Conservatives have long criticized DEI and other forms of identity politics for stoking rather than curing division and focusing education toward left-wing political indoctrination at the expense of learning.
Last year, insiders from the University of California-Los Angeles’ (UCLA’s) prestigious David Geffen School of Medicine warned that the school’s diversity fixation had led to a crisis in which more than half of students in various cohorts admitted since 2020 fail standardized tests for basic medical knowledge of subjects ranging from emergency medicine and family medicine to internal medicine and pediatrics.
