Kentucky lawmakers approve bill to ban DEI initiatives on public college campuses
After falling short of passing a similar bill in 2024, Kentucky lawmakers gave final passage to a bill to dismantle all diversity, equity and inclusion programs, offices and initiatives at public higher education institutions.
House Bill 4 passed in the Senate on Wednesday evening and was given final passage in the House Thursday morning.
It now goes to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who can either sign it into law, let it become law without his signature or veto it. Beshear criticized similar legislation in 2024.
Even if he vetoes the measure, the Republican supermajority in both chambers has the power to override his veto.
Rep. Jennifer Decker, lead sponsor of the bill has said the bill will promote “equal opportunity, not subjective equity” on Kentucky’s higher education campuses, and would align Kentucky with “with Equal Protection principles upon which our nation was founded.”
The bill would require state universities and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System to defund 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.”
Sen. Stephen West, R-Paris, said the bill is to make sure all students enter college “on a level playing field.”
“This is nothing new,” West said. “What you have before you today is after several years of discussion and process.”
But Senate Minority Leader Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, said anyone who believes this bill will level the playing field, or that systemic racism doesn’t deny some opportunities while giving others a leg up, is “talking from a different frame of reference than what reality purports.”
Neal and nearly all other Democrats in the House and Senate voted against the bill.
Neal introduced several floor amendments to change the bill Wednesday evening, though all failed. Speaking against the bill, Neal pushed back on the idea that it creates equal opportunities.
“Racism is wide and deep, and it works against human beings, their opportunities,” Neal said. “There is no level playing field if you speak in a general sense that impacts an individual’s life.”
Sen. Keturah Herron, D-Louisville, said the bill would have “a huge negative impact” on minority communities “moving forward for generations to come.”
“This bill is a direct attack on Black, brown, LGBTQ and anyone who is non-white,” Herron said.
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.
It would also ban any course or training students or staff are required to participate in where “the primary purpose is to indoctrinate participants with a discriminatory concept,” and blocks universities from requiring diversity statements.
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 ineligible for federal formula funding increases.
Opponents of the bill, many of them professors and students at Kentucky colleges, have said Decker’s bill undermines and misunderstands the critical role of DEI initiatives, which help support minority populations who have historically not been granted the same access to higher education.
Sen. Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, who voted against the bill in the Senate Education Committee and again in the Senate vote, said the bill would “reverse history” at the committee meeting on Monday.
“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.”
At a press conference on Thursday, Beshear said he would review the bill to ensure it won’t “undo gains we’ve made in post secondary enrollment.”
“I believe diversity is a strength and never a liability,” Beshear said. “I will review the bill, but anything that is telling any of our Kentuckians that they are lesser than someone else, we shouldn’t be doing. We should be welcoming people of all different backgrounds into our Commonwealth, encouraging making more room at the table for more voices.”
On Tuesday, an open meetings complaint was filed about a previous committee meeting in which the bill was passed. James Orlick, a University of Louisville graduate student, said a potential open meetings violation occurred during the House Standing Committee on Postsecondary Education March 4 meeting.
Republicans voted to advance the bill, but committee chairman Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, held a vote on a title amendment to the bill after the meeting was adjourned.
House Speaker David Osborne of Prospect said the title amendment doesn’t affect the content of the bill, but since it was “not properly before the body when we adopted it,” it now means an “extra step” has to be taken in the Senate when the bill comes up for a vote from the full body.
HB4 is Decker’s second bill targeting DEI initiatives. Her 2024 version did not pass into law.
Legislation targeting DEI policies has been introduced in 29 states since 2023, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
This story was originally published March 13, 2025 at 10:10 AM.