You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
The South Carolina House of Representatives has passed a bill that would ban public colleges and universities from asking applicants for admission or employment to submit statements that agree or disagree with diversity, equity and inclusion or “any political ideology or movement.”
H. 4289 would ban these institutions from requesting such statements from current employees, too. If they were to receive such a statement anyway, they couldn’t take it into consideration in admissions or employment.
The legislation would also prohibit public institutions from requiring employees to go through any “training or other educational program” on DEI.
This is one of multiple bills targeting DEI in state legislatures this year—though it wouldn’t go as far as others, such as a new Alabama law that will ban professors from assigning coursework that advocates for certain “divisive concepts.”
The South Carolina bill wouldn’t defund or ban DEI offices or programming, but it would require these colleges and universities to annually report their “total number of administrative positions and total operating costs, including a description of the programs that support” DEI.
The House passed the bill 84 to 30 on its second reading Wednesday. It was a party-line vote, with all Republicans present voting in favor and all present Democrats opposed. The House passed it again 77 to 30 on its third reading Thursday, meaning it now heads to the state Senate.
The South Carolina Daily Gazette reported that Adam Morgan, a Republican representative, spoke for the bill, quoting Boston University professor Ibram X. Kendi’s statement in How to Be an Antiracist that “the only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.”
The South Carolina arms of the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union, plus the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus, all oppose the bill. The State reported that Representative Ivory Thigpen, a Democrat and chair of the caucus, said “one would think it is 1964 instead of 2024.”
