NORTH CAROLINA — The North Carolina General Assembly has joined the national conversation over diversity, equity and inclusion, with one local politician introducing a bill that would prohibit the use of DEI initiatives in public schools.
READ MORE: School board members weigh in on Department of Ed’s fate after one shares views on CNN
Sen. Michael Lee has put forth Senate Bill 227: Eliminating “DEI” in Public Education, also sponsored by Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger (R-Guilford, Rockingham) and Sen. Brad Overcash (R-Gaston). The bill passed the Senate Committee on Education and Higher Education Wednesday and now heads to the Committee On Rules and Operations of the Senate.
As written in the legislation, the bill points to the North Carolina Constitution and claims DEI initiatives go against it.
“[Article I of the state Constitution] recognizes the equality and rights of all persons,” the bill indicates. “Therefore, it is the intent of the General Assembly that students, teachers, administrators, and other school employees respect the dignity of others, acknowledge the right of others to express differing opinions, and foster and defend intellectual honesty, freedom of inquiry and instruction, and freedom of speech and association and that the public schools of this State employ teaching methods and procedures to further that intent.”
As mentioned in the bill, it aims to bring the state’s public schools in line with President Donald Trump’s executive order directing the U.S. Department of Education to create a plan eliminating federal funding or support for schools using “gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology.” The executive branch’s authority to do this has been challenged, as the Constitution explicitly gives Congress power of the purse.
Critics of the bill include the New Hanover County NAACP. In a letter to Lee, NAACP President LeRon T. Montgomery defended DEI policies as “vital tools” that help students develop the critical skills in an increasingly diverse world.
“Removing DEI programs would signal to students that their differences are not valued and that inclusivity is not a priority,” Montgomery said.
Montgomery requested Lee advocate for the expansion of DEI programs rather than call for their dismantling.
Liz Barber, policy counsel at the ACLU of North Carolina, said the bill could also raise constitutional concerns. A federal court has already temporarily blocked Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders as potential violations of the First and Fifth amendments.
Trump’s executive order has been challenged in the U.S. District Court of New Hampshire. A lawsuit filed by the National Education Association and the ACLU argues the U.S. Department of Education’s new prohibition on “DEI programs” is too sweeping and vague to be interpreted.
The complaint also claims the federal government is overreaching by trying to control curriculum — “chilling the free speech and scholarship of academics and educators, and likewise impinging on the ability of students to hear perspectives the federal government finds objectionable,” the complaint reads.
Lee’s bill also delves into curriculum.
On the North Carolina Senate committee floor Wednesday, Lee described the bill as a way to “prevent instruction, whether to students or teachers, on divisive concepts or discriminatory practices,” thus affecting any anti-bias training or professional development.
The bill outlines “divisive” concepts that would be prohibited from being taught, including that the U.S. “was created by members of a particular race or sex for the purpose of oppressing members of another race or sex,” or “all Americans are not created equal and are not endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Other prohibited concepts include:
- One race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex.
- An individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive.
- An individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of his or her race or sex.
- An individual’s moral character is necessarily determined by his or her race or sex.
- An individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.
- Any individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress.
- A meritocracy is inherently racist or sexist.
- Particular character traits, values, moral or ethical codes, privileges, or beliefs should be ascribed to a race or sex or to an individual because of the individual’s race or sex.
- The rule of law does not exist but instead is a series of power relationships and struggles among racial or other groups.
- Governments should deny to any person within the government’s jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.
These concepts are taken verbatim from legislation Republicans have been trying to pass into legislation for several General Assembly sessions. Last year’s House Bill 187 included all 12 concepts, though the bill didn’t make it out of the North Carolina House of Representatives. However, the list was picked up by New Hanover County Schools and inserted into a professional conduct policy that passed in February 2024.
Democrats expressing reticence toward the bill Wednesday questioned how it would be enforced and if it would encroach on historical teachings, particularly regarding race, ethnicity, sex and the nation’s founding.
In a press release earlier this week, Berger addressed concerns by acknowledging America’s past is a must in history education.
“But we can teach history without forcing our educators and students to embrace and adopt ideologies inconsistent with equality,” he wrote.
The bill would bring public schools in line with higher education institutions in the UNC System, which mandated universities remove its DEI directors and departments and commit to institutional and instructional neutrality.
If passed, each school district would need to report on how it is implementing the law, staffing and spending changes, by September 1, 2025.
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.
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