(LifeSiteNews) – 17 states have taken actions restricting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and criteria from public institutions as of the beginning of March 2025, according to a new report by the Leadership Institute publication Campus Reform.
The states are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, according to the report. The list includes laws, executive actions, and education board decisions that “restric[t] DEI measures, causing universities to cease funding of DEI programs with taxpayer dollars, dismantle DEI departments, end DEI trainings, and stop DEI-based hiring and admissions practices.”
An additional 12 states – Arizona, Connecticut, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina – have legislation currently pending to do the same.
Between action to curb DEI in progress or completed in just over half the states and numerous businesses backpedaling on “diversity” initiatives, America is in the middle of a popular wave against so-called “woke ideology.”
The indoctrination of children with left-wing ideology on sexuality and other left-wing agenda items has long been a major concern in American public schools, from libraries to athletic and restroom policy to drag events to classroom materials to even “transitioning” troubled children without parental input. Many schools have also displayed hostility to the rights and employment of individual teachers who refuse to go along with such agendas.
The issue, along with the promotion of ideological messages in taxpayer-funded education, has fueled a parent backlash that has been credited with Republican gains in states like Florida and Virginia in recent years, whose current respective governors have taken leading roles in fighting back.
Once-and-future President Donald Trump’s defeat of Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris for the White House has also been seen by many as further evidence of the general public rejecting woke ideology. Exit polling by the pro-Democrat firm Blueprint found that the statement “Kamala Harris is focused more on cultural issues like transgender issues rather than helping the middle class” was the third-biggest reason for why overall voters chose not to vote for her, and the number one reason why swing voters rejected her and voted for Trump instead.
Last month, the Trump administration’s Department of Education (DOE) gave public schools and universities across the country two weeks to eliminate any DEI programs they may be running or risk losing federal funding. It has also launched a website for parents, students, and teachers to submit reports of woke discrimination based on race or sex in publicly-funded K-12 schools.
