DEI proponents ‘ constantly enrich themselves’ to market’ thinly veiled plan agenda,’ study’s author says ,
” Diversity, equity, and inclusion” course requirements in at least 30 states cost students and taxpayers at least$ 1.8 billion per four-year period. According to a conservative think tank report,” the existing academic community at public colleges will spend at least 40 million hours” completing these requirements.
The Goldwater Institute report‘s artist, who spoke to The College Fix, claimed professionals and instructors income from these programs and that DEI efforts are expensive for taxpayers because of the funds they are diverting.
According to Matt Beienburg, director of education policy at the Goldwater Institute,” One of the reasons DEI is so expensive to citizens is because its opponents constantly enrich themselves as they expand its range and control over institutions.”
According to Beienburg,” DE I” specialists” and another “gurus” like Ibram X. Kendi take speaking fees from taxpayer-funded public establishments at levels of tens of thousands of dollars per engagement.
He even told The Fix:
The faculty and staff hired to give this material benefit from inflated budgets of millions of taxpayer dollars that are diverted from more important academic purposes when it comes to necessary La training and coursework. The radical social content that is hidden beneath the optimistic brands of DEI-based development is frequently hidden in families ‘ minds. Families who are looking for low-cost, in-state possibilities in higher learning usually have little option but to bear the cost of these La training requirements as the cost of obtaining a degree even when they are aware of and subject to this ideologically motivated content.
The Goldwater review says that, over the course of four decades, the University of California, Berkeley put$ 55 million of fee income and state budget toward DEI programs.
It also states that UC Berkeley labels its DEI-infused classes with seemingly “innocuous-sounding” general course titles, such as” American Cultures”.
However, UC Berkeley Assistant Vice Chancellor Dan Mogulof told The Fix,” There are no required DEI courses” at the school.
” At UC Berkeley curriculum and courses are not determined, labelled or described by the central campus administration. Decisions about curriculum content and its description are completely decentralized, and are the responsibility of faculty, department chairs and deans”, he said.
The university administration has no ability to make a course necessary. Every course must meet the University of California’s academic standards”, which “are enforced by the university’s Academic Senate”, Mogulof told The Fix.
MORE: New research identifies more than 1, 100 DEI-related jobs at U. Michigan
The Goldwater report also identifies the University of Virginia’s course” ‘ Hateinnany’: Fascism, Antifascism, and the Global Far Right” as politically partisan because it references” President Donald Trump” in the context of “far-right politics” and “fascism”.
The Fix contacted Professor David Walsh to ask what he thought about this course characterization.
” I have no comment”, Walsh said, “except to say that my syllabi are freely available to anyone who requests them…”
He also said the word” Hateinnany” in the title of his course” comes from American Nazi Party leader ( and one-time gubernatorial candidate in the Commonwealth of Virginia ) George Lincoln Rockwell’s record label—is an attempt, hopefully a successful one, to get students thinking historically about American and global political history in the 20th and 21st centuries”.
This situation, however, is not solely about financial costs and the political content embedded in these programs. According to John Sailer, director of higher education policy at the Manhattan Institute, part of this problem may be attributed to misguided discussions about academic freedom.
According to Sailer,” I actually believe that some of these issues can be corrected by the framing of these issues in terms of academic freedom.”
He also said:
Broadly speaking, universities inevitably make strong judgments about what should go into the curriculum. That’s necessary and good. And of course, there are times when curricular requirements go against academic freedom, such as when professors are required to make particular statements on course syllabi. But usually, the debate shouldn’t be about procedural freedoms. It should be about the merits of the requirements. I object to these requirements because of [their ] lazy thinking and worse classes. [ T]hey encourage students to think about everything through the lens of race and oppression, and that does them a disservice because it makes it more difficult for them to understand the world.
Sailer claimed to The Fix that he was unsure whether student interest was causing the demand for DEI courses. Instead, universities artificially support these departments to show commitment to diversity and inclusion.
When asked about the educational merits of DEI course topics, Sailer said,” There are plenty of legitimate lines of inquiry to pursue regarding race, racism, identity, and oppression, so of course it’s worth engaging those topics in class and in scholarship”.
However,” the DEI frame has consistently given special favor to scholars and courses that all lead to certain predetermined conclusions on those topics. That’s what needs to be ended”, he said.
To address these concerns, the Goldwater report advocates for states to implement its Freedom From Indoctrination Act, which requires schools to teach the principles, history, and value of America’s government and founding.
In response to questions about these instruction requirements, Beienburg said,” Teaching students the foundations of the American republic—including the principles of the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence—should be among the basic functions of our education system, both in K-12 and higher education”.
There is no comparison between actively lobbying for the thinly veiled policy agenda of DEI supporters on the one hand and ensuring students are exposed to the principles and safeguards of our constitutional government, he said.
MORE: Trump admin purges DEI from Education Department, suspends staff
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