GOP lawmaker’s bill to end DEI at KY’s public colleges one step closer to becoming law
A priority bill from Kentucky Republicans to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion offices, policies and practices at the state’s public colleges and universities is one step closer to becoming law.
“Historically, America has driven for equal opportunity, not subjective equity, which DEI now pursues through discriminatory admissions, hires and processes,” Rep. Jennifer Decker, lead sponsor of House Bill 4, told the Senate Education Committee Monday afternoon.
Decker, a Republican from Waddy, added that her bill “would halt this dangerous, unconstitutional approach, aligning Kentucky with Equal Protection principles upon which our nation was founded.”
She characterizes DEI initiatives at post-secondary institutions as “failed and misguided bureaucracies that have made our colleges more divided, more expensive and less tolerant,” and told committee members that by disbanding those programs and procedures, it will actually make universities more inclusive settings.
House Bill 4 is the second anti-DEI bill Decker has filed. Her 2024 version did not pass into law.
But opponents of the bill, many of whom work for or attend those institutions, suggested that Decker’s bill fundamentally undermines and misunderstands the crucial role of such initiatives, which help support and accommodate minority and marginalized populations who’ve historically not granted the same equal access to higher education.
“In theory, House Bill 4 appears to promote a critical education by prohibiting what it calls ‘discriminatory concepts’ and ‘indoctrination’ while championing intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity,” said Katie Kleincopf, assistant professor of religion and humanities at the University of Louisville who works with United Campus Workers.
“On its face, that sounds great — like you, I want Kentucky’s universities to be accessible, affordable, intellectually rigorous environments, free from discrimination and indoctrination. But what this bill says and what it does are miles apart,” she said.
Kleincopf went on to quote James Baldwin: “’‘I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do.’”
Sen. Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, who voted against the bill, did not mince words about it.
“Let’s make no doubt about it, this bill is about race. Today, we seek to reverse history and go back to our ugly past,” he said. “We want to put on the front door of these public universities: you are not welcome, application denied.”
Decker’s bill, which now advances to the full Senate for a vote, proposes defunding all DEI initiatives, including offices, policies and practices “designed or implemented to promote or provide preferential treatment or benefits to individuals on the basis of religion, sex, color, or national origin.”
The bill would not apply to the operations of an institution’s Equal Protection offices.
A DEI office under the bill is one that promotes “discriminatory concepts,” which are defined as “any concept that justifies or promotes differential treatment or benefits” to an individual based on the aforementioned traits.
And what’s considered DEI training under the bill “does not include academic courses or instruction,” but it does bar “indoctrination,” including any course or training students or staff are required to participate in where “the primary purpose is to indoctrinate participants with a discriminatory concept.”
It would also block universities from requiring students or staff to sign a diversity statement, attend a DEI training session, or complete an academic course “dedicated to the promotion of differential treatment or benefits conferred to individuals on the basis of religion, race, sex, color or national origin.”
To ensure overall compliance, the bill grants the Auditor of Public Accounts power to conduct periodic “compliance audits” of higher education institutions. If the auditor determines one of those institutions “spent money in violation” of the law, that college or university would have to comply within 180 days, or risk becoming ineligble for federal formula funding increases.
HB4 is one of several bills targeting DEI in Kentucky introduced this session.
Senate Bill 164, filed by Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield, would block all levels of government from “providing preferential treatment” to individuals or groups based on race, sex, color, or national origin, and would bar government from requiring people to attend DEI trainings or establishing a DEI office.
Senate Bill 165, also filed by Tichenor, would apply the same prohibitions to the Kentucky Department of Education, school districts, public schools and cooperative boards.
Legislation targeting DEI policies has been introduced in 29 states since 2023, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
‘Bullying systemic policies’
Twenty people were signed up to speak on the bill, although not all were permitted to speak due to time constraints.
Each of the nine people who were permitted to speak were opposed to the bill. Many of them argued it would roll back progress that minorities have made in the higher education space and in America, generally speaking.
Before committee members voted on the bill, Whit Whittaker, president of the Lexington-Fayette branch of the NAACP said, “Education is the great equalizer . . . and one group should not enact erasure because it is afraid to face the truth about past actions, instead of learning and growing from them to build a future better for everyone.”
Whittaker said people who are impacted by DEI “are not asking for a participation trophy, just accessibility and opportunity to participate and earn our way based on educational merit, without being enslaved by the bias (or) the rise of bullying, systemic policies that contribute to the historical erasure and fall of our education institutions.”
Bernadette Barton, professor at Morehead State University and speaking with a group from United Campus Workers, the higher education union in Kentucky, spoke against the bill, saying she worries it could be interpreted to ban diverse student groups, scholarship opportunities or disability accommodations, calling it “a slippery slope.”
“We serve many people with different needs,” Barton said of Kentucky’s universities. “We know best how to support student success.”
Sen. Gex Williams, R-Verona, voted for the bill. In explaining his vote, he disagreed with a central premise of the opposition’s argument: that more people need to be seeking higher education.
Williams mentioned the need for more people in the construction business as the housing crisis in Kentucky and the nation continues to worsen.
“We’re in a situation these days where I don’t know that we need a greater enrollment in universities… the universities may have out-priced themselves economically in the value they give,” Williams said.
Before the committee voted along party lines to move the bill, Senate Minority Leader Gerald Neal introduced a series of amendments in an attempt to rein in its impact.
“I’m not a name caller, I’m not going to start now,” Neal said after his amendments were shot down.
“But I am going to say to you that we’re saying a whole lot about ourselves here, and I’m hoping we can reclaim ourselves, because I know there are good people here.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
