Sen. Greg Walker, R-Columbus
INDIANAPOLIS — Sen. Greg Walker, R-Columbus, voted against a hotly debated bill Thursday that seeks to crack down on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in schools and state government.
Senate Bill 289, which cleared the Senate in a 34-13 vote, would prohibit mandatory DEI training in K-12 public schools and restrict DEI programs within state universities, The Indiana Capital Chronicle reported.
The legislation was amended earlier in the week to include pieces of a related measure, Senate Bill 235, authored by Sen. Tyler Johnson, R-Leo, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle. That language would bar state agencies and colleges from funding DEI offices or employees and from bestowing contracts or grants on entities that mandate DEI training. It also lets Indiana’s attorney general sue for violations.
Walker was one of four Republicans who joined Democrats in voting against the measure, according to state records.
Walker told The Republic that he voted against the bill because he believes it does not do a “good job of defining what particular hiring practice or higher education practice that it’s trying to address” and “creates a surrogate by blaming DEI for whatever practice that the bill is trying to change the behavior of.”
Walker also emphasized issues with how the bill defines DEI.
“The bill throws out the baby with the bathwater,” Walker told The Republic. “And by creating its own unique definition of (DEI), it is as if to most casual observers (that) we’ve tossed the entire notion of there are programs, there are opportunities, there are scholarships for children. There are lots and lots of things that are positive and create pathways for success that don’t discriminate. They’re not discrimination pathways. They’re not quotas. They’re not preferential treatment. They’re not bad hires of people who are unqualified. None of those things exist in many of the models of finding ways to help people find success in learning and in hiring, and this bill throws them all out the door.”
Diversity, equity and inclusion is explicitly described in the legislation “as any effort” to do the following:
- Manipulate or otherwise influence the composition of employees with reference to race, sex, color, or ethnicity, which does not include ensuring color blind and race neutral hiring in accordance with state and federal anti-discrimination laws.
- Promote differential treatment of or provide special benefits to individuals on the basis of race, sex, color, or ethnicity.
- Promote or promulgate policies or procedures designed or implemented with reference to race, sex, color, or ethnicity that are not policies or procedures approved in writing by the attorney general for the sole purpose of ensuring compliance with any applicable court order or state or federal law.
- Promote or promulgate training, programming, or activities designed or implemented with reference to race, sex, color, or ethnicity that are not training, programming, or activities developed by an attorney and approved in writing by the attorney general for the sole purpose of ensuring compliance with any applicable court order or state or federal law.
A carveout in the bill says DEI does not include efforts or materials that “inform individuals about the prohibition of discrimination based on protected status under state or federal law.” Also not affected are activities to “retain or support” students and employees — as long as those efforts “do not promote differential treatment and are open to all individuals irrespective of race, color, ethnicity, or any other protected status under state or federal law.”
“The bill creates a definition of diversity, equity and inclusion that is not the common vernacular for what that term means, at least to me and others,” Walker said. “And in doing so, it paints a false notion of what DEI represents in the practice of understanding differences in people and pathways to success in education and in hiring and so on. …It redefines DEI in a way that’s not accurately portraying what diversity really means. …It has the chilling effect of looking as though Indiana is deleting diversity, equity, and inclusion from all of life. It just misrepresents what really the positive aspects of those activities and those viewpoints really represent.”
Under the bill, state employees and students could still voluntarily attend DEI training or programs, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle. They can additionally “independently” access DEI-related materials and conduct related research.
“Discussion or teaching” on DEI topics would be permitted in classrooms so long as the school “makes clear that it does not sponsor, approve, or endorse” those beliefs and concepts.
State agencies would further be banned from having DEI offices or hiring practices. They also wouldn’t be allowed to “promote, embrace, or endorse stereotypes.”
Republican Sen. Gary Byrne, one of the bill’s authors, said schools and agencies would be mandated to post their “DEI-related materials” online so “citizens can see for themselves what ideals are being promoted.”
That section of the bill stipulates that all staff training and instructional materials concerning nondiscrimination, diversity, equity, inclusion, race, ethnicity, sex and bias must be publicly available, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.
Another piece of the proposal would prevent DEI training requirements for state-regulated health care licensure.
Democrats and other opponents raised concerns that anti-DEI bill language will harm marginalized communities and suppress meaningful discussions on systemic inequality.
Byrne maintained that schools can still teach about slavery, the Holocaust, the Civil Rights Movement and other historical topics, although the bill does not say so, specifically.
After numerous Democrats questioned whether taxpayer-funded scholarships for minority students would be affected, Johnson said those awards “would be handled separately from the bill,” according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle. The Republican senator pointed to a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision ending the use of race in college admissions, including for scholarships.
Even so, Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray was confident scholarships, such as those aimed at Black and Latino students, wouldn’t be impacted.
