Alabama governor signs bill restricting DEI programs in public schools

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed a sweeping bill Wednesday that will restrict the teaching of “divisive concepts” and limit diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at public schools, universities and state agencies.

The legislation, which the state’s GOP-controlled legislature sent to Ivey’s desk Tuesday, stipulates that schools and agencies cannot sponsor any DEI programs or require their students or employees to participate in them. It also states that they cannot punish students or employees for their “refusal to support, believe, endorse, embrace, confess, or otherwise assent to a divisive concept or diversity statement.”

First read in the Alabama Senate in late February, the bill’s definitions of divisive concepts include teaching that “any race, color, religion, sex, ethnicity, or national origin is inherently superior or inferior.”

The legislation also includes language that public colleges and universities must require students to use bathrooms based on their biological sex at birth, citing existing state law.

Ivey said she signed the bill, which will take effect Oct. 1, to “protect” the state’s colleges and universities.

“My Administration has and will continue to value Alabama’s rich diversity, however, I refuse to allow a few bad actors on college campuses — or wherever else for that matter — to go under the acronym of DEI, using taxpayer funds, to push their liberal political movement counter to what the majority of Alabamians believe,” she said in a statement.

Civil rights groups have condemned the bill, saying it furthers the chilling effect classrooms have experienced in recent years as they become the site of culture wars across the country.

In a statement in late February, free-speech advocacy group PEN America called the legislation “the most pernicious educational gag order impacting higher education.”

The organization compared the bill to Florida’s “Stop Woke Act,” which restricts how workplaces, public schools and universities could teach diversity and inclusion until it was blocked in court.

Alabama’s bill, PEN America said, is “even more restrictive.”

In a news release after the Alabama Senate voted to pass the bill in February, its Republican caucus said DEI offices in higher education “have operated like divisive ideological activists.”

“Higher education must return to its essential foundations of academic integrity and the pursuit of knowledge instead of being corrupted by destructive ideologies,” Sen. Will Barfoot (R), a primary sponsor of the bill, said in a statement. “This legislation will build bridges to celebrate what people have in common, not erect walls that silo people into the idea that their race, religion, and sexual orientation solely define who they are and how society should view them.”

The bill states that it does not prevent students and faculty at public schools from hosting DEI programs as long as state funds are not used to sponsor them. But it also includes a stipulation that state agencies and public institutions cannot use a grant or federal or private funding “for the purpose of compelling assent to any divisive concept.”

The legislation adds that it does not prohibit teaching curriculum “in a historically accurate context.”

The Alabama bill is the latest in a wave of conservative legislation that aims to restrict education on race, sex and gender and which kicked into high gear during the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic set off a wave of discontent among parents - and later politicians - nationwide, first over school closures and safety measures such as masking, but later over how public K-12 schools and universities are teaching about race, racism, history, sexuality and gender identity.

Since 2021, close to 90 laws have been enacted across the country which limit or wholly forbid instruction on these issues at both the K-12 and university levels, a Washington Post analysis found. The laws were overwhelmingly adopted in red states. The first wave of such legislation focused more on issues of race instruction on K-12 campuses, and subsequently on how teachers can discuss gender identity and sexual orientation, but the latest round has been more squarely centered on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, trainings and even classes on college campuses.

The drive against DEI took on particular heat late last year, when then-Harvard President Claudine Gay came under fire first for what critics called her failure to denounce antisemitic behavior, and then for allegations of plagiarism championed by right-wing pundits - and which led her to make corrections to several papers.

Some conservative critics progressed to asserting that Gay amounted to a “DEI hire,” meaning she was the totemic symbol of DEI efforts at the college level, hired for Harvard’s top job solely because of her race and gender. Gay, who was Harvard’s first Black president, resigned in January - and some on the right were quick to jump on her stepping down as evidence the campaign against DEI was picking up steam.

“This is the beginning of the end for DEI in America’s institutions,” conservative activist Chris Rufo posted on X, formerly Twitter, celebrating Gay’s resignation.

In recent months, anti-DEI advocates have claimed several other major victories. Utah in January passed a law that prohibits universities, state boards and government employees from setting up DEI offices, while a Texas law similarly forbidding DEI offices and diversity training for students and employees at public institutions in the state took effect the same month. Outside of the realm of higher education, a federal judge in March ordered a minority-business agency be opened to all races, ruling that only helping businesses owned by Blacks, Latinos and other minorities violates the constitutional guarantee of equal protection.

A spokesperson for the University of Alabama System - the largest public higher education system in the state - did not directly say whether its schools would cut DEI programming if the law goes into effect, but told The Washington Post before Ivey signed the bill that it would “determine what actions are needed to ensure we can continue to fulfill our multifaceted missions and equip all campus community members for success at our universities and beyond in compliance with applicable law.”