Sherry Sylvester of the Texas Public Policy Foundation says the first bill, Texas Senate Bill 17, concentrated on removing DEI from job application requirements at the state's colleges and universities; the focus now is getting "woke" courses out of the classroom.
"I found 400 courses with the word 'gender' in the title, just in the title of the course," she relays. "By comparison, there were like six courses that had 'U.S. Constitution' in the title. None of them had Abraham Lincoln in the title."
During a hearing at the Texas Senate, State Sen. Brandon Creighton pointed out that "while DEI-related curriculum and course content does not explicitly violate the letter of the law, it indeed contradicts its spirit [and] does not reflect the expectations of Texas taxpayers and students who fund our public universities."
The primary opposition to this undertaking is coming from university professors who believe they have the final say on the curriculum.
"It will be time for universities to take a very sincere and focused look at what their mission is," Sylvester submits. In her view, that should be "to be places of open and free inquiry where students can thrive."
Meanwhile, most students are not voluntarily enrolling in "woke" courses but are instead taking classes that will benefit their careers. Also, as Campus Reform notes, several other states have banned DEI in public higher education institutions.
