No More DEI

The 2025 legislative session should prove to be the most conservative in Idaho’s history. One consequence of this could be the end of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs in taxpayer-supported facilities like public schools and universities. The State Board of Education is already trying to contain the fallout by preemptively and narrowly prohibiting DEI in higher education:

The Idaho State Board of Education could pass a resolution limiting diversity, equity and inclusion polices, also known as DEI, in Idaho’s public colleges and universities.

The discussions come amid a nationwide backlash against DEI programs, which became popular in 2020 in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minnesota police officer.

“This is not about removing support where people need it,” Josh Whitworth, executive director of the State Board of Education, said during Thursday’s board meeting. Rather, he said, it’s aimed to provide all students with access to the offices.

“It’s really an inclusionary point of view,” Whitworth said.

The draft resolution presented Thursday to the board would ensure that no central office, policy, procedure or initiative is dedicated to DEI. The colleges must also ensure “that all student success centers are dedicated to all students.”

Some state universities are already restructuring their DEI offices, presumably hoping to do what they did in 2021 when the Legislature banned Critical Race Theory (CRT). By changing some names and moving personnel around, they might be hoping to escape scrutiny while continuing to deliver for the woke Marxist revolution.

Because that’s what it is — a permanent revolution. DEI programs in K-12 and college train young people to be soldiers of this revolution, putting pressure on the rest of society to conform to this narrow and divisive vision of humanity. Why was Big City Coffee chased off the campus of Boise State University? Because DEI programs had created a small army of outspoken student activists who claimed to feel threatened and unsafe by a coffee shop whose owner supported law enforcement.

(Edit: I meant to link to this great essay on the subject by Wayne Hoffman. He is rightly skeptical that the State Board of Education will do anything meaningful to curtail this ideology.)

Many of our institutions, including our schools, have been captured by an ideology that promotes division by focusing on sex, ethnicity, and other characteristics. It uses these characteristics to divide people, claiming that some are eternally victims and others are eternally oppressors. Their only solution to the problem they have created is more money for DEI programs. One might cynically believe that the entire ideology is little more than money laundering.

I wrote about why DEI is anti-American and anti-human several months ago. I believe that the electoral victories this year, both in Idaho and at the national level, show that people are tired of being divided like this. It’s time to put DEI in the dustbin of history where it belongs.

To that end, I submitted a resolution to the Idaho Republican Party last week to condemn DEI as well as to urge the Legislature to eviscerate this divisive ideology from our state colleges and universities. I hope they go beyond that and remove it from all taxpayer funded institutions, but I believe higher ed is the lowest-hanging fruit. I look forward to presenting this resolution at the Winter Meeting in January, and then supporting lawmakers who work to make it a reality.

Resolution

Title: Prohibiting DEI at Public Colleges and Universities

Presented to the Region V Republican Committee by Brian Almon, Chairman LD14

WHEREAS the public colleges and universities of Idaho exist to serve the needs of all students as well as the greater community, and;

WHEREAS curricula and programs devoted to ideas such as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) or under different designations seek to divide students and the greater community by emphasizing racial, ethnic, gender, and other differences, and;

WHEREAS DEI programs are used to mold student activists who propagate the continued Marxist assault on Western Civilization, and;

WHEREAS the Idaho Legislature has repeatedly attempted to defund and prohibit anti-American ideologies such as DEI in public colleges and universities, only for administrators to continue such programs under new names and line items, and;

WHEREAS a jury found that administrators at Boise State University were liable for forcing Big City Coffee off campus to satisfy a small but angry group of student activists who had been indoctrinated by DEI programs;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Idaho Republican Party condemns anti-American ideologies such as DEI, and;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the Idaho Republican Party condemns any program or ideology that seeks to divide the American people based on race, sex, or any other innate characteristic, and;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the Idaho Republican Party calls upon the State Legislature to introduce and adopt legislation defunding and prohibiting DEI programs in public colleges and universities, and;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the Idaho Republican Party urges the State Legislature to craft such legislation in such a way and with mechanisms for enforcement to ensure this ideology is removed from public colleges and universities, and;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the Idaho Republican Party calls upon the Governor to sign such legislation.

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