(The Center Square) – The Goldwater Institute and the Idaho Freedom Foundation sent a letter this week urging Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador to investigate whether state colleges and universities are complying with a law banning mandatory diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Idaho was the first state to adopt the Freedom from Indoctrination Act. The law prohibits public universities from requiring students to take courses with DEI ideology.
Exceptions are limited to specific degree programs, such as ethnic, gender or racial studies.
Goldwater Institute, which is based in Phoenix, alleges that Boise State University, Idaho State University and the University of Idaho are using “backdoor” methods to maintain these mandates.
Parker Jackson, an attorney for the Goldwater Institute, in an exclusive interview with The Center Square, said universities across the country are finding clever ways to get around these laws, such as changing course names, altering office titles or playing games with statutory language while keeping the DEI substance intact.
“Most students don’t go to college for politics. They go to become professionals in their chosen fields without being dragged into ideological battles,” Jackson said.
According to the Goldwater Institute, the State Board of Education issued guidance that improperly expands exceptions to the law in two ways:
1) Redefining the language of “derived from” DEI to apply only to courses where 90% or more of the material focuses on DEI.
2) Allowing programs such as counseling, social work and anthropology to mandate DEI courses if their descriptions mention DEI, despite the law requiring exceptions to be based on the degree’s formal title.
“The law prohibits public universities from mandating courses, trainings or programs that are derived from or promote the tenets of critical theory or diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Parker Jackson, an attorney for the Goldwater Institute, told The Center Square in an exclusive interview.
A draft audit obtained by Boise State Public Radio indicated that the state’s major universities have “largely adhered” to the anti-DEI laws, identifying only a few instances of non-compliance.
Jennifer White, executive director of the Idaho State Board of Education, said the institutions take the legislature’s direction seriously.
“Work will be ongoing, but we are pleased that the audit identified only a few matters of concern,” White said.
Jackson disagrees. “The law is designed to do two things: first, to stop taxpayer funding of toxic ideologies that promote discrimination on the basis of race and sex; and second, to prevent public universities from forcing these ideologies onto unsuspecting students just as the condition of graduation.”
The Center Square reached out to Boise State University, Idaho State University, the University of Idaho and the Idaho State Board of Education, but has yet to receive a response.
