Is diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) dead at universities? No—not even in Idaho, a state with strong legal protections against political indoctrination in higher education. That’s why today, the Goldwater Institute and its allies at the Idaho Freedom Foundation sent a letter urging Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador to investigate efforts by the Idaho State Board of Education and state colleges and universities that allowed the schools to undermine a law that bans mandatory DEI instruction for most students.
Idaho was the first state to adopt the Goldwater Institute’s Freedom from Indoctrination Act, a powerful reform that helps end political indoctrination and restores public universities to their core academic purposes. Under the law, public universities may not require students to take courses, trainings, or programs “derived from or that promote the tenets or concepts of critical theory” or DEI, a toxic ideology that promotes blatant race and sex discrimination.
By design, the law restores student choice and ensures that degree completion is not conditioned on ideological indoctrination, except in a narrow set of cases expressly allowed by statute. When the Act is violated, the Idaho Attorney General is required to investigate the allegations and is authorized to bring legal action to ensure compliance.
After the Act was passed, the Idaho Board of Education issued guidance that publicly funded colleges and universities have used to continue mandating DEI coursework for a slew of degree programs in direct violation of the law. The guidance significantly expanded the exceptions for DEI coursework beyond the narrow boundaries of the statute.
First, the colleges have redefined what the phrase “derived from” DEI means. Under this view, a course is only considered derived from DEI when 90% or more of its material is focused on DEI—a requirement not found in the statute, and which drastically narrows the range of DEI-related courses that fall under the law’s prohibition.
Second, the guidance allows any academic program whose descriptions—not just their titles—say that DEI is important to the major to request exemptions. This includes when a major isn’t clearly labeled as ethnic, gender, or racial studies. Under this interpretation, even programs like psychology, counseling, or social work—which do not qualify under the statute’s title-based exemption—may now request and receive approval to mandate DEI courses for those majors.
Unsurprisingly, due to the expansive and lenient standards, several schools, including Boise State University, Idaho State University, and the University of Idaho, have obtained permission to mandate DEI courses for majors in social work, counseling, counselor education and supervision, clinical psychology, sociology, anthropology, and human development and family studies. At Boise State University, for example, students pursuing bachelor’s degrees in social work are required to take a course called Diversity and Social Justice, while at Idaho State University social work students must pass the course Social Justice, Advocacy, and Policy Practice. The University of Idaho requires students seeking sociology degrees to take Introduction to Inequity and Justice.
Fortunately, the Idaho Attorney General can put a stop to this political indoctrination and take steps to ensure compliance with the law.
“If a DEI course has nothing to do with a student’s major, it shouldn’t stand between the student and graduation. No student should be forcibly indoctrinated with DEI just to earn a degree. Yet, many Idaho schools are still doing just that,” said Stacy Skankey, Litigation Director for the Goldwater Institute’s American Freedom Network. “Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador should take action now and make the state’s colleges and universities follow the law.”
Idaho took an important step toward protecting academic freedom, student choice, and intellectual diversity when it passed the Freedom from Indoctrination Act. Now it must ensure that the universities and state agencies charged with implementing the law do not circumvent its protections.
DEI is losing ground across America and especially on college campuses. The Goldwater Institute will continue to push back against divisive agendas by passing—and defending— legislative reforms to eliminate DEI mandates across the country.
You can read the letter here.
