Taxpayers and Students Are Funding $2 Billion in DEI Course Mandates at Public Universities, New Report Finds

The Goldwater Institute (GI) issued a report this month exposing how much DEI course mandates at public universities nationwide cost taxpayers and students. The report found that the cost is over $1.8 billion and could be as high as $3.8 billion, requiring 40 million hours. 

The report observed that the free speech advocacy organization Speech First found that 67 percent of U.S. colleges and universities require students to take a DEI course. Parents Defending Education revealed that the Department of Education awarded over $1 billion in grant funding for DEI courses within the past four years to K-12 schools and universities.

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103 Things Higher Ed Declared Racist in 2024

Racism is the intentional mistreatment of someone on the basis of their race – at least in the normal world. But in academia, racism is anything producing disparities, according to Professor Ibram Kendi.

What follows is a long list of people, places, actions, and other things declared racist this year by higher ed, though a few came from K-12. If something needs “anti-racist” action or “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” it follows it must be racist, or else it would not need correction.

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Commentary: The Reason the Department of Education Is Afraid of Innovation in Higher Ed

Online learning has revolutionized higher education, but a recent move by the federal Department of Education is threatening to tear down systems that are helping millions of students learn.

An extremely wide diversity of students choose to take online courses or to get entire online degrees. Colleges that offer them need to be nimble as the economy changes, yet traditional colleges are slow to change, and they often lack the expertise and funding to develop and manage online courses independently.

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Commentary: Student Debt Forgiveness Won’t Cure Higher Education’s Ills

On February 28th, the Supreme Court heard arguments on President Biden’s plan to extinguish an estimated $400 billion in student debt. Biden deserves credit for highlighting a debilitating federal program in desperate need of reform. His proposal, however, would make the problem far worse, not better. Any serious reform would force academic institutions to take some responsibility for the education they provide—and to show some responsibility to the many young Americans they induce to go deeply into debt. 

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