In its recent letter to Attorney General Dave Yost's (R) office, Defending Education requests an investigation into Ohio State University over some required coursework that it says is illegal.
As of October 14, a whistleblower's screenshot of the student registration portal reportedly shows there is still a "race, ethnicity, and gender diversity" requirement in place.
Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president and legal fellow at Defending Education, notes that the Department of Education and the Department of Justice have been very active, and at the federal level, this is problematic from a civil rights and a constitutional perspective.
"There's actually a law on the books – SB 1 – in the state of Ohio that prohibits types of classes like this that require adherence to views on racial identities or provide programming that require students to somehow affirm their implicit bias or white privilege," she adds.
That law, the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act, went into effect in June. It bans courses, training, litmus tests, required statements, and spending for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives or programs and sets parameters around discussions about what it calls controversial topics like climate polices, electoral politics, foreign policy, DEI, immigration, marriage, and abortion.
President Donald Trump has also taken executive action against state-funded institutions that use race as a factor in admissions, scholarships, or other aspects of student life, so OSU's requirement is a violation of federal and state law.
Defending Education wants to address that kind of thing there and on the national level.
"Our goal is ultimately to get all of the attorneys generals, the state superintendents of schools, and all of the state legislators to take a real good look at what their education canons are," Perry tells AFN.
Her organization wants to make sure that actors within every state "are actually following the law and not shirking their responsibilities."
