Idaho's anti-DEI bill heads to the governor's desk

BOISE — A bill placing sweeping prohibitions on DEI in public higher education institutions passed the House on Thursday and will go to the governor for consideration.

House members debated Senate Bill 1198 for around 30 minutes, before voting 52-17 with one member absent to pass it.

The bill prohibits required training, courses, centers and activities that are based on concepts that fall within DEI, which stands for diversity, equity and inclusion. It allows the state attorney general to investigate and pursue monetary penalties over violations.

Bill sponsor, Rep. Judy Boyle, R-Midvale, said that the concepts of DEI are divisive.

“America has always been based on merit,” Boyle said. “Everyone has equal opportunity to do the very best they can. That doesn’t mean they have an equal outcome.”

The bill’s lengthy definition of DEI includes any training, program, activities or instruction that is derived from or promotes the tenets of concepts such as “critical theory,” including unconscious or implicit bias, internalized racism, structural equity, group marginalization, systemic oppression, social justice, systemic racism, patriarchy, queer theory and others.

Several representatives who opposed the bill thought it ventured into censorship and was overly punitive. Those who supported it said that it only restricted what could be required, and some didn’t think it went far enough.

The bill would allow the governing boards of institutions to create exemptions for courses required under degree programs that are “primarily focused on racial, ethnic, or gender studies.” The bill also includes some exceptions for offices or training to comply with federal laws, such as Title IX or the Americans with Disability Act.

Rep. Monica Church, D-Boise, said she had deep concerns over the bill, including that the carve-outs for following laws prohibiting discrimination against women or people with disabilities, were laws created through what would be considered DEI initiatives.

“All of us women in here right now are examples of forced equity and inclusion, and I’m glad for it,” Church said.

Rep. Britt Raybould, R-Rexburg, said she thinks the concerns are relevant and understands, but had concerns about the way the bill went about trying to address it.

“I don't disagree with the intent of protecting the rights of students, faculty and employees at colleges and universities,” Raybould said, “but if we look back through history, the governments who rely on censorship of ideas, it’s because they’re scared of the positions that they hold, and ill equipped to defend them. China doesn’t block access to what happened in Tiananmen Square because it believes it was in the right, it blocks access because it can’t defend it.”

She argued college students who don’t agree with the concepts cited in the bill were capable of standing up and countering those arguments.

Rep. Dale Hawkins, R-Ferndale, argued that conservative ideas had been restricted on campus. And that DEI concepts in the bill “have led to division.”

“I’ll be honest, I don’t think this legislation goes far enough,” Hawkins said. “We’re talking about a publicly funded education system.”

Idaho’s universities are funded by a variety of sources. The total budget for the University of Idaho, for example, includes 32.6% from the state. Around 43% of Boise State University’s expenditure budget comes from state funds.

Rep. David Leavitt, R-Twin Falls, argued in favor of the bill, and said that when he took a political science class a couple years ago, he had to read a chapter about one of the first legislators elected in the U.S. who was LGTBQ.

“I was very frustrated,” Leavitt said. “I was very upset about why, because I fought and bled for this country. I was using my post-9/11 GI bill to pay for this education. There was no way for me, really, to go to the professor and talk about this issue.”

The bill previously passed the Senate 27-8 and will go to Gov. Brad Little for consideration of signature, veto or to allow it to go into effect without signature.