A Republican lawmaker has signaled plans for a new effort to limit diversity, equity and inclusion practices at Kentucky’s public universities, after the Republican Party’s supermajority failed to resolve disagreements on the issue during the recently ended legislative session. to solve.
Kentucky lawmakers will reconvene in January, and Sen. Mike Wilson said he hopes lawmakers will use the coming months to craft a new version of the DEI legislation for the 30-day session in 2025.
“It will be something that we will work on in the meantime and hopefully come to some sort of agreement with the House of Representatives,” Wilson said Tuesday during a news conference with Republican leaders in the Senate.
Debates about DEI efforts on college campuses have taken place in statehouses across the country this year. Republicans in at least 20 states have sought to limit such initiatives, saying they are discriminatory and enforce a liberal orthodoxy. Alabama and Utah passed anti-DEI laws this year, and a ban passed in Texas last year led to more than a hundred job losses on the University of Texas campuses.
In Kentucky, the issue sparked contentious debates as the Senate and House of Representatives passed different versions of anti-DEI bills. Opponents warned that proposed restrictions on campuses could reverse gains in minority enrollment and undermine campus discussions about past discrimination.
Sen. Gerald Neal, the top Democrat in the Senate, said Tuesday that the anti-DEI efforts were “a blatant attempt to undo the progress our commonwealth has made.”
Wilson, who holds the Senate majority position, sponsored the bill that was passed by House Republicans in February. It would have banned “discriminatory concepts” in non-classroom settings, such as training sessions and orientation classes, and would have barred schools from giving preferential treatment based on a person’s political ideology. It would also be prohibited to require people to express specific ideologies or beliefs when seeking admission, employment or promotion.
About a month later, the House deleted the Senate language and inserted a replacement that took a tougher stance by also eliminating DEI offices and officer positions. Wilson’s original bill did not call for dismantling those offices.
Senate Republicans were concerned about parts of the House version, Wilson said Tuesday, without providing details. Both versions died when the term ended Monday evening.
Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear denounced anti-DEI efforts last month while commemorating the 60th anniversary of a historic civil rights rally in Frankfort, the state capital.
“DEI is not a four-letter word,” Beshear said. “DEI is a three-letter acronym for very important values found in our Bible. Diversity, equality and inclusivity are about loving each other. It’s about adhering to the Golden Rule. …Diversity will always make us stronger. It is an asset and never a liability.”
With supermajorities in both chambers, Republicans can easily override the governor’s vetoes.
Neal, who is Black, said Tuesday that supporters of the anti-DEI bills want to “suppress the part of history that makes them uncomfortable” rather than acknowledge and learn from the past.
During the Senate debate in February, Wilson said his bill would counter what he called a broader trend in higher education of denying on-campus jobs or promotions to faculty who refuse “liberal ideologies that are in vogue in our public universities to embrace his. He said such practices also extended to students and staff.
“Diversity of thought should be welcomed in our universities and higher education,” Wilson said. “But we have seen a trend in the United States where teachers, in order to stay on the job, are being forced to formally endorse a set of beliefs that may conflict with their own, all in violation of the First Amendment.”
Looking ahead to renewed work on the issue, Wilson said Tuesday that there were parts of the House bill that Republican senators “thought we could live with,” without providing details.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer predicted Tuesday that Republican senators will reach out to Republicans in the House of Representatives to try to reach a deal on DEI legislation, which he hopes lawmakers will pass early next years to start. Thayer will retire from the Senate at the end of 2024.
“They’ll essentially be back here in eight months, and they’ll have that time to try to broker a compromise on the DEI issue,” Thayer said.
