State taxpayers and undergraduate students are being forced to subsidize mandatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) courses at public universities across the country, costing nearly $2 billion, according to a new report. It is said that it has reached .
A Goldwater Institute report says students and state taxpayers are paying $1.8 billion in tuition and state spending over four years for DEI general education courses.
The report goes on to say that undergraduate students at public universities spent at least 40 million student hours completing DEI general education course requirements.
Many DEI proponents argue that the initiative corrects historical injustices and systemic inequities.
But conservatives say it's more divisive, and DEI efforts have come under intense scrutiny over the past year and been scaled back by some major companies.
Additionally, the report cites examples of courses offered at universities that promote DEI or explore intersectionality and racial, gender, and sexual identities.
According to the Goldwater Institute, “With faculty governing bodies abdicating their responsibility to foster intellectual inquiry free of ideological coercion, and university trustees choosing to ignore this move, state legislatures are and students have a duty to intervene.”
Fox News Digital previously reported that DEI was curtailed at the University of Michigan after officials considered the impact on the campus community. The University of Michigan Board of Trustees, which has a 6-2 Democratic majority, has also been debating the future of the bureaucracy surrounding DEI efforts at the university.
Several other public universities rolled back their DEI initiatives and requirements last year.
