Despite student opposition, anti-DEI legislation is likely to move forward this year.
BOISE, Idaho — Draft legislation proposed last Thursday would ban certain general education courses, diversity training, bias reporting systems and general education courses at Idaho public universities, and provide the Idaho attorney general with enforcement authority over university compliance.
The six-page draft contains extensive definitions of what constitutes diversity, equity and inclusion ideology, including unconscious or implicit bias, antiracism, racial privilege, patriarchy and related concepts.
Sen. Ben Toews, R-Coeur d’Alene, who presented the draft, said it is to promote free speech on campuses.
“My goal is to work together with our higher education partners to move us in the right direction of guaranteeing freedom of speech and freedom of thought, which I believe we all desire to have on our college campuses,” Toews said last week.
The draft follows the Idaho State Board of Education’s December decision to …