Texas poised to become latest GOP state to exert control over university curriculum

The gubernatorially appointed boards that oversee Texas universities soon could have new powers to control the curriculum required of students and eliminate degree programs. The legislation sent Monday to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott marks the latest effort among Republican-led states to reshape higher education institutions that they assert have been promoting liberal ideology. It follows similar moves in Florida and Ohio. The state actions come as President Donald Trump's administration also has injected itself into higher education, leveraging federal funding and its student visa authority to clamp down on campus activism and stamp out diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Some professors contend the moves violate the principles of academic freedom that many universities have followed for decades. "Political operatives have basically used their positions of power — political power, economic power — to demand that the institutions conform to their ideas," said Isaac Kamola, director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom at the American Association of University Professors. "It's an existential attack on higher education that we're facing," added Kamola, a political science professor at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. A Texas effort to shape general education requirements Under the Texas legislation, governing boards at higher education institutions will be tasked with reviewing — and potentially overturning — general education curriculum requirements to ensure courses are necessary to prepare students for civic and professional life, equip them for the workforce and are worth the cost to students. Governing boards also will gain greater power over faculty councils, the employment of academic administrators and decisions to eliminate minor degree or certificate programs that have low enrollment. The bill also creates a state ombudsman's office to investigate complaints against institutions, including alleged violations of restrictions against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. "The objective of this legislation is to provide consistency with respect to our curriculum and the degrees we're offering our students," Republican state Rep. Matt Shaheen, co-sponsor of the legislation, said during House floor debate. Ray Bonilla, an attorney for the Texas A&M University System, one of the state's largest higher education institutions, said the legislation formalizes decisions already being made at the university and wouldn't create an "undue workload." But Democratic state Rep. Donna Howard said during a May committee hearing that the legislation "appears to be extreme micromanagement on the part of the Legislature." "The bill is not about improving education, it is about increasing control," Howard said during the debate. An Ohio law mandates specific curriculum In Ohio, a new law bans DEI programs at public colleges and universities, strips faculty of certain collective bargaining and tenure protections and mandates a civil literacy course in order to graduate. In addition to covering the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, the three-credit-hour course must include a least five essays from the Federalist Papers, the "Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Jr. and a study of the principles of Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations," among other things. The law also places restrictions on the handling of "controversial beliefs or policies," defined to include climate, immigration or foreign policy, electoral politics, DEI programs, marriage and abortion. While testifying for his bill, Republican state Sen. Jerry Cirino cited John Dewey -- one of the fathers of progressive education -- to condemn what he believes to be a hard tack in the other direction at colleges and universities. "He believed that all theories should be examined and debated," Cirino told fellow lawmakers. "He would certainly have been against the woke conformity we see on so many campuses and the clearly demonstrated liberal leanings of faculty and staff who will not tolerate alternative views." Christopher McKnight Nichols, an Ohio State University history professor, said the law has already driven some faculty members to sanitize their websites of "controversial" content, alter course descriptions and, in some cases, cancel courses altogether. He said it's never been proven that faculty members are systematically punishing students who don't share their political beliefs. Nichols is among a coalition of Ohio educators, students and administrators fighting back against the new law. Opponents face a late June deadline to collect enough signatures to place a referendum overturning it on the November ballot. A movement with roots in a Trump order and Florida In some ways, the efforts to exert greater state control over college faculty and curriculums are moving higher education closer to a governing model generally seen in K-12 education, said Alec Thomson, president of the National Council for Higher Education at the National Education Association. "It's a concerning change in the sense that you would expect the institutions to have a fair amount of autonomy to make these decisions about curriculum," added Thomson, a professor of political science and history at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Michigan. During his first term in 2020, Trump issued an executive order "combating race and sex stereotyping" in federal agencies and contracting that forbid the promotion of "divisive concepts," including that one race or sex is "inherently superior" to another, that individuals should feel guilty because of their race or sex and that merit-based systems are racist or sexist. Similar prohibitions on divisive concepts soon appeared in model bills backed by conservative think tanks and in state higher education laws, including in Florida in 2022. The next year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis initiated a makeover of the New College of Florida — a small liberal arts school once known as the state's most progressive — by appointing a group of conservatives to its governing board. DeSantis then traveled to the campus to sign a law barring public funds from going to DEI activities in higher education or promoting political or social activism. Governors and lawmakers this year have taken about twice as many actions targeting DEI initiatives as last year, according to an Associated Press analysis aided by the bill-tracking software Plural. Among those is a new Idaho law that not only bans DEI offices and programs in higher education but also addresses what's taught in the classroom. It prohibits colleges and universities from requiring students to take DEI-related courses to meet graduation requirements, unless they're pursuing degrees in race or gender studies.