Iowa House moves to tighten DEI restrictions in higher education
The Iowa House approved several bills Tuesday to tighten DEI restrictions in higher education. They also advanced a bill that would ban state agencies and local governments from spending money on DEI offices or staff.
The Iowa House approved several bills Tuesday to tighten DEI restrictions in higher education. They also advanced a bill that would ban state agencies and local governments from spending money on DEI offices or staff.
The Iowa House approved several bills Tuesday to tighten DEI restrictions in higher education. They also advanced a bill that would ban state agencies and local governments from spending money on DEI offices or staff.
The Iowa House approved several bills Tuesday to tighten DEI restrictions in higher education. They also advanced a bill that would ban state agencies and local governments from spending money on diversity, equity, and inclusion offices or staff.
Last year, Gov. Kim Reynolds banned diversity, equity and inclusion offices and programs at the state's public universities. The bills passed Tuesday would take that a step further.
would ban Iowa's public universities from requiring any course that teaches concepts related to DEI or critical race theory. Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, managed the bill on the House floor.
"A better name for diversity, equity and inclusion programs, in my opinion, would be adversity, inequity and exclusion, because that is what these programs do," Holt said. "Indoctrinating young people to see everything through the prism of race is incredibly destructive."
Several Iowa Democrats spoke in opposition to the legislation, including Rep. Mary Madison, D-West Des Moines.
"These bills are not about improving education or governance," Madison said. "They are about censorship, exclusion, and erasing important conversations that prepare students for the real world."
The Iowa House also advanced a bill Tuesday night that would create new general education requirements for Iowa's public universities. states that the required courses cannot include material that teaches "identity politics or systemic racism, sexism, oppression" or that "distort significant historical events."
During debate Tuesday, House lawmakers amended to ban DEI offices at all Iowa community colleges and private colleges participating in the Iowa Tuition Grant. The changes were originally included in two other bills that passed through the House Higher Education Committee last month.
House File 856 would also ban all local governments and state agencies from spending any money on DEI offices or staff.
Rep. Henry Stone, R-Forest City, managed the bill on the House floor. "DEI only wants to look at what can be viewed from the outside and not what a person brings to the table in their skills and abilities," Stone said.
"We have got to stop teaching this to our children," Stone added. "What we're doing is teaching them, before considering anything else, that their skin color doesn't look like mine, so I have to treat them differently."
Rep. Timi Brown-Powers, D-Waterloo, said she wasn't sure why "these three words scare us."
"Diversity enriches our environment by bringing together individuals with unique backgrounds, perspectives and experiences. Equity ensures that everyone has a fair access to opportunity and resources," Brown-Powers said. "Inclusion is about creating a culture where all individuals feel valued, respected, and heard.
"Who in this room does not want to feel valued, be respected or be heard? We all want this. So, one might ask, and I ask, What the hell are we doing today?" Brown-Powers added.
The bill passed in a 61-37 vote. No Democrats voted in favor of the measure.
Four Republicans — Rep. Michael Bergan (R-Dorchester), Rep. Chad Ingels (R-Randalia), Rep. Brian Lohse (R-Bondurant), and Rep. Matthew Rinker (R-Burlington) — joined all Democrats in opposing the legislation.
The Iowa House also passed a bill that would change accreditation requirements.
would prevent accrediting agencies from taking "adverse action" against schools "for compliance with state law." That includes a law passed last year that prevents Iowa's public universities from having DEI offices.
All four bills approved Tuesday now head to the Iowa Senate for consideration.
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