This week the House passed on a party line vote Senate Bill 227 Eliminating “DEI” in Public Education and Senate Bill 558 Eliminating “DEI” in Public Higher Ed.

From our post in March about Senate Bill 227:

Senate Bill 227 reinforces the need for schools to focus on the core curriculum, foster a learning environment that respects and acknowledges those with differing opinions, and allow the freedom of speech and association to flourish in a K-12 setting.

The bill seeks to remove divisive concepts and discriminatory practices from public education, including prohibiting instruction on those topics, compelling students or staff to profess a belief in divisive topics, and ensuring that professional development doesn’t include those topics.

The bill would not prevent schools from teaching history, so long as the instruction is impartial.

Senate Bill 227 defines 12 specific divisive concepts, including the concepts that one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex; an individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive; an individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of his or her race or sex; and an individual’s moral character is necessarily determined by his or her race or sex. 

Further, it prohibits schools from having a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) office, division, designated employee, or any other similar unit. 

Senate Bill 558, focused on Higher Education, comes on the heels of a string of employees at UNC system schools bragging about continuing to push DEI despite an executive order from President Trump banning DEI in public education. 

Conservative House leadership has prioritized eliminating DEI in state government, with Majority Leader Brenden Jones’ House Bill 171 also passing in the North Carolina Senate this week. House Bill 171 passed the House on a party line vote in April.

Rep. Jones shared on X, “Taxpayer dollars should fund merit, not woke agendas and identity politics. This bill upholds equal opportunity and ensures employment and contracts are based on qualifications, not quotas.”