Adam Guillette, president of Accuracy in Media, says despite common belief, the "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion" (DEI) framework is not an accurate representation of American history. It teaches that capitalism and America are systematically racist and divides people into two categories: the oppressed and the oppressors.
North Carolina and Kansas are stopping taxpayer dollars from being used to fund this type of education with new bills that differ from the existing anti-DEI regulations nationwide.
The earlier wave of executive orders, policies and laws restricted DEI in limited ways. Rather than fully prohibiting taxpayer funding, states required public universities to report DEI spending or activities, laws prohibited mandatory DEI statements in hiring or admissions, and policies directed institutions to review or eliminate certain DEI programs without explicitly banning funding.
Florida was among the first states to take broader action. In 2023, Ron DeSantis, the state's Republican governor, signed SB 266, which prohibited Florida's public colleges and universities from spending state or federal funds on DEI programs and restricted certain general education courses.
In January 2024, the Florida State Board of Education adopted a rule permanently prohibiting Florida College System institutions from using state or federal funds for DEI programs, activities and policies. The Florida Board of Governors also voted to prohibit Florida's public universities from using state or federal funds for DEI programs.
Now, Guillette says North Carolina and Kansas have adopted similar approaches.
With Senate Bill 227, the "No DEI in Higher Education Act," North Carolina is prohibiting public universities and community colleges from using state funds for DEI initiatives, including DEI offices, mandatory trainings and related programming. It also requires institutions to certify compliance.
Last month, the North Carolina General Assembly successfully voted to override the governor's veto, and the legislation took effect immediately across the state's K-12 public school system. A related bill applying similar prohibitions and requirements to the state's public colleges and universities was passed via another successful veto override.
Likewise, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly recently signed legislation that will prohibit the state’s public colleges from requiring students to take "DEI-CRT" courses, part of a wave of bills targeting college classroom instruction related to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Critical Race Theory.
Guillette says these laws go further than previous anti-DEI measures.
"The new laws … match Florida because they have penalties for breaking them, like fines up to $10,000 per infraction," Guillette explains. "They finally deal with the course instruction and the curriculum; they are prohibited from promoting identity politics in classrooms."
He says Accuracy in Media has been on the frontlines of this issue, sending undercover journalists into offending universities to draw confessions about how they were dealing with the Trump administration's anti-DEI regulations.
In many cases, they found that schools had simply changed the language, re-titled the DEI staffers and continued with business as normal.
Now, as Accuracy in Media issues action alerts for states that are considering similar DEI-related laws, Guillette says his organization will continue to investigate what happens in these schools that are funded by the taxpayers.
"You want to do crazy left-wing activism? Knock yourself out! Go join the Democratic Socialists of America," he submits. "Don't do it with my tax dollars. Don't do it in our classrooms."
