Commentary

Texas Leads The Way On DEI Reforms

  • By Do No Harm Staff
  • May 30, 2023

Three cheers for the Lone Star State! On May 28, the Texas Legislature passed the strongest anti-DEI bill in the nation. Gov. Abbott is expected to sign it into law, making Texas the leader in the fight to get rid of divisive and discriminatory ideology in higher education and medical schools. 

When signed, the Texas law will enact several critical reforms that protect and restore merit and educational standards. The law applies to all public universities and colleges in the state, and it will:

  • Eliminate DEI offices.
  • End mandatory training for students and staff related to DEI.
  • Prohibit the use of discriminatory Diversity Statements in faculty hiring.
  • Empower students or employees to sue if they’re required to undergo DEI training.
  • Impose penalties on universities that violate this law, to the point of denying future funding increases.

The law also makes Texas the only state in the nation to do several important things. The list includes:

  • Defining the function of a DEI office so that universities cannot create one under another name.
  • Holding universities accountable by creating a civil right of action if anyone is subjected to mandatory DEI training.
  • Requiring the state auditor to regularly evaluate universities to ensure that they are not spending dollars on DEI offices.
  • Requiring universities to regularly provide testimony to the Texas legislature about their compliance with the law.
  • Providing direction to university trustees to create penalties – up to and including termination – for anyone caught exercising the functions of a DEI officer or running a DEI office.

This law is a major win for everyone who wants to uphold the highest standards of medical education. That’s especially true for patients, who don’t need to be as worried that their physicians were trained to be activists instead of medical professionals. Texas medical schools have a history of forcing DEI on students and faculty. Now this decline is being reversed, and not a moment too soon.