Ohio Rep. Tom Young bill for anti-DEI enforcement in education amid higher education officials still pushing the ideology

Ohio Rep. Tom Young, R-Washington Twp., has introduced House Bill 698, which would establish procedures to review whether schools are still breaking the law by continuing their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in violation of Senate Bill 1.

The recent news followed Accuracy in Media’s uncovering that many schools, colleges, and universities – specifically at the University of Cincinnati, Kent State University, Dayton Public Schools, Eastwood Middle School, Fremont City School, and Reading High School – are pushing DEI and other left-wing ideologies in the classroom.

The bill would require schools in the state to certify compliance with the state Chancellor of Higher Education each year and report the names of employees who previously or currently promote the DEI ideology on their campuses, according to NBC 4.

Young told the news outlet that he thinks many college administrators are working hard to comply with the state’s anti-DEI policies, but some people in these institutions are simply refusing to follow the law.

“I absolutely believe that people are not following it to a T,” he told the NBC station. “Not everyone — I’m sure there are many, many people who are genuinely taking this very seriously. But you always have outliers, and we just want to make sure that they are accounted for.”

House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, already supported the bill, saying that Ohio must “incentivize complying with the law.”

“If they simply say, ‘Well that may be what the law says but I’m not going to do that,’ something needs to happen to incentivize complying with the law,” Huffman told the NBC station.

On the other hand, Democrats in the House and Senate opposed the bill, as they had previously opposed SB 1.

“With all due respect to my colleagues, they are not the best equipped people to determine exactly what goes on in every single classroom,” House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn told the NBC station. “Instead of doing the things that are actually within our purview and that it is our responsibility to do for our young people, we’re trying to dictate to the next generation, you know what form of censorship they should be subject to.”

Jennifer Tisone Price, executive director for the Ohio conference of the American Association of University Professors, also opposed the bill, telling The Columbus Dispatch that the bill is not good for “students, faculty, and communities” and is a “big hit to the quality of education and the cost of education in Ohio.”

“It’s a huge disappointment to see them coming out with another bill that just further undermines and erodes higher education in Ohio,” Price told News 5 Cleveland. “There is no legal definition of DEI, so how are colleges and universities or professors or staff members supposed to know if what they are talking about or what they might say or what opinion they might express could then be considered DEI and a reason for them to be fired?”