Texas bill changing control of higher ed curriculum goes to governor's desk
Governing boards at higher education institutions, which are appointed by the governor, will be able to review and strike down general curriculum requirements at the universities.
The new legislation also gives these boards more power over hiring, elimination of degrees with low enrollment and creates a new oversight office for noncompliance complaints.
The bill, which will likely be signed by the governor, is the latest effort among Republican states to control curriculum and other aspects of higher education institutions.
'The objective of this legislation is to provide consistency with respect to our curriculum and the degrees we're offering our students,' said Republican state Rep. Matt Shaheen, co-sponsor of the legislation, the Associated Press reported.
In places like Florida, it has become common place for similar boards to strip requirements for gender or diversity courses and replace it with civics classes.
The move comes as the Trump administration has also been exerting more pressure on universities, stripping them of funding if demands such as eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion aren't met.
'Political operatives have basically used their positions of power — political power, economic power — to demand that the institutions conform to their ideas,' said Isaac Kamola, director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom at the American Association of University Professors, according to the AP.
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'The president foreshadowed that if these heavy-handed tactics take root here, they will be rolled out to other majority-Black and Brown cities, like Chicago, Oakland and Baltimore, across the country,' said Monica Hopkins, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union's D.C. chapter. 'We've seen before how federal control of the D.C. National Guard and police can lead to abuse, intimidation and civil rights violations — from military helicopters swooping over peaceful racial justice protesters in 2020 to the unchecked conduct of federal officers who remain shielded from full accountability,' Hopkins said. Conservative lawmakers have for generations used denigrating language to describe the condition of major American cities and called for greater law enforcement, often in response to changing demographics in those cities driven by nonwhite populations relocating in search of work or safety from racial discrimination and state violence. 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