North Carolina and Kansas are joining Florida in adopting tougher restrictions on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in public education.
LOUISVILLE, KY - JANUARY 11: A teacher interacts with students virtually while sitting in an empty classroom during a period of Non-Traditional Instruction at Hazelwood Elementary School on January 11, 2022 in Louisville, Kentucky.
North Carolina and Kansas are joining Florida in adopting tougher restrictions on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in public education, with supporters saying the new laws are designed to address enforcement gaps that have allowed DEI programs to continue despite previous bans. The measures go beyond eliminating DEI offices or changing job titles by placing new restrictions on classroom instruction and creating penalties for violations, according to Adam Guillette, president of Accuracy in Media.
Speaking with The National News Desk, Guillette argued that many earlier state efforts lacked meaningful enforcement.
"The executive order was held up in courts, so many states passed their own laws," he said. "But all of them, with the exception of Florida, were not worth the paper they were printed on because they had no enforcement mechanism, no consequences for breaking the law, and they didn't address curriculum at all. " Guillette said his organization's undercover investigations have found some colleges and universities continued DEI initiatives by rebranding programs after federal and state crackdowns.
He said the new laws in North Carolina and Kansas more closely resemble Florida's approach by limiting what educators can promote in the classroom while also establishing financial consequences for violations.
"These new laws match Florida in prohibiting educators from promoting identity politics, and they actually have penalties," Guillette said. "There's a $10,000 fine for each infraction for violating the law in North Carolina. I think that's a great start.
" Supporters of the legislation argue the laws do not prevent professors from discussing controversial subjects in appropriate academic settings but instead prohibit educators from promoting political or ideological viewpoints using taxpayer-funded classrooms. "Educators should certainly feel comfortable discussing communism, fascism, DEI in the appropriate courses — in a political course, a philosophy course — but they don't need to be discussing it in math class," he said.
"It doesn't need to be a prism through which they view every facet of education. " He also argued that universities should not maintain large administrative staffs dedicated to DEI initiatives. "They should never be promoting these ideas," Guillette said. "And it's exceptionally important as well to ensure that they don't have highly paid administrative staffers who are out of the classroom and essentially just taxpayer-funded activists.
" Critics of previous DEI restrictions have argued they lacked clear reporting requirements, oversight and accountability. Guillette pointed to Iowa as one state attempting to strengthen oversight by requiring universities to periodically review courses for compliance.
"Asking administrators to investigate themselves is very much the fox guarding the henhouse," Guillette said. He added that Accuracy in Media plans to continue conducting undercover investigations at colleges and universities, saying those investigations have previously led to Department of Justice inquiries.
"It's exciting to know that now our investigations can potentially lead to, as we said, $10,000 fines for those who break the law on the taxpayer dime," he said. Guillette also connected the debate over DEI policies to broader concerns about patriotism among younger Americans, arguing classroom instruction has contributed to declining national pride.
"The statistics show that since they've been recording levels of patriotism, it has literally never been lower for young people," he said. "We've produced a generation that are not only less educated by every objective measure than the prior generation for the first time ever, but also do not love our country at all compared to how all prior generations loved their country.
" He argued that portraying the United States primarily through the lens of oppression has influenced those attitudes. "When you teach people for 13 years in K through 12 education that America is an oppressor state... no one should be surprised that these people do not love our country," Guillette said.
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