Some states have taken the commendable step of making racial preferences (“affirmative action”) illegal in their public universities, but the forces that want to use higher education for political ends won’t stop just because of such a law.
In today’s Martin Center article, Anna Miller of the Idaho Freedom Foundation argues that citizens and legislators who want to keep their institutions from being overrun by “progressive” zealots must be ever vigilant.
For example, Miller points out that state universities have adopted many programs that exclude men. Such programs won’t be covered by a ban on racial preferences, but still are objectionable. Governments should not treat any group of people better than any other.
And then there are numerous “diversity” policies that aren’t necessarily illegal under a ban on affirmative action. Miller writes, “Universities have imposed political litmus tests in hiring practices, which fosters tokenism and compromises academic excellence under the guise of DEI. Moreover, leftist political activism has been infused into residence life through living-learning communities and service-learning.”
The activism of the Left to turn our education system into training grounds for social-justice warriors is relentless and must be fought tooth and nail.
Miller concludes, “Other states should learn from Idaho’s experience that they must do more than address race and sex based discrimination in hiring and admissions. Political litmus tests should be banned. Budgets funding campus DEI bureaucracies should be cut. Administrators should be held accountable for not only abiding by the law but respecting the wishes of the people that state universities exist to teach students knowledge and skills, not to twist their thinking with political indoctrination of any kind.”