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A North Carolina Senate committee advanced a controversial bill Wednesday to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in public schools. The Republican-controlled Senate Committee on Education and Higher Education voted to approve Senate Bill 227, the “Eliminating ‘DEI’ in Public Schools” act, sending the bill on to the Rules Committee.
The bill, filed this week by Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) and Sens. Michael Lee (R-New Hanover) and Brad Overcash (R-Gaston), would prohibit public school units from promoting or endorsing certain concepts related to diversity, which sponsors argue are divisive.
The bill’s primary focus is to prevent schools from promoting what it refers to as “discriminatory practices” and “divisive concepts.” These “divisive concepts” as defined by the bill, include ideas such as claiming that one race or sex is inherently superior, that individuals are inherently racist or oppressive because of their race or sex, or bear responsibility for past actions of their race or sex. Another prohibited idea would be that “A meritocracy is inherently racist or sexist.”
The bill would also prohibit schools from maintaining diversity, equity and inclusion offices and employees charged with promoting DEI concepts.
At the committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Lee defended the legislation, arguing that it was not a ban on teaching history or discussing past injustices. “It’s really to prevent instruction, whether to students or teachers, on divisive concepts or discriminatory practices,” Lee said, adding that many of these practices violate federal law.
Sen. Woodson Bradley (D-Mecklenburg County) raised concerns about the bill’s scope and implementation, specifically questioning who would determine if curricula met the requirements, and warning that it could politicize public education. “People are going to perceive that we are going straight down the path to politicizing public education,” Bradley said.
During public comment, Liz Barber of the ACLU of North Carolina raised constitutional concerns, citing a similar New Hampshire law struck down as unconstitutionally vague. Meanwhile, Joseph Backholm from the NC Values Coalition supported the bill, arguing that many corporations and universities are already moving away from diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
In a press release earlier this week, Berger said, “We cannot teach our nation’s history without acknowledging our past. But we can teach history without forcing our educators and students to embrace and adopt ideologies inconsistent with equality.”
Each public school unit would need to report by Sept. 1, 2025, on how it is implementing the law, including any changes to staffing and spending.
“There is just so much misinformation associated with the impact of diversity, equity and inclusion in educational settings, and it just continues to be used as a tool to stoke fear with parents, educators and voters,” said Dr. Deanna Townsend-Smith, senior director of the Dudley Flood Center for Educational Equity and Opportunity, which advocates for all children to have access to a quality education. “I think that all this just creates hostile, unsafe and limited learning environments for students,” Townsend-Smith told NC Newsline in a phone interview.
Part of a broader anti-DEI campaign
The push against diversity, equity, and inclusion in schools is part of broad-based attack on the concepts by Republican lawmakers. Last month, North Carolina House Majority Leader Brenden Jones (R-Columbus and Robeson Counties) filed legislation to purge all diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives from state and local government.
House Bill 171, which is entitled “Equality in State Agencies/Prohibition on DEI,” would strip state and local governments of any diversity equity and inclusion related programs or policies or initiatives, including those in hiring practices, staff positions, or training programs.
The introduction of both Senate Bill 227 and House Bill 171 follows a January executive order by President Trump bearing the title “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing.”
The state’s Legislative Black Caucus, in a statement last week, criticized efforts to “dismantle” federal DEI initiatives. Members of the group also criticized House Bill 171 last week at a Legislative Building press conference, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional” and a threat to the state’s economic competitiveness.
“The programs that these measures seek to destroy include programs that uplift students and workers in Appalachia and other rural parts of North Carolina, along with other marginalized groups,” the Black Caucus statement said. “Embracing a broad spectrum of voices— from urban centers to the farthest reaches of our rural communities—is not just a moral imperative. It is a strategic necessity in order to lift every North Carolinian.”
Read the bill here: