Red states tell colleges: Race and gender classes are out, civics in

Lawmakers in Utah, Ohio and Florida have mandated classes on civics and Western civilization and cut classes on race and gender from graduation requirements

Publication: The Washington Post

Author: Danielle Douglas-Gabriel

Date: June 2, 2025

Read the article HERE

Lawmakers in conservative states are taking more control over what is taught and required at public colleges and universities, an effort that some faculty say threatens the foundation of higher education and academic freedom.

New laws in Ohio, Utah and Florida are reshaping general education, the core classes college students take to meet graduation requirements. The laws mandate that students take civics courses focused on Western civilization and bar classes centered on race or gender from counting toward core requirements.

Lawmakers say it’s time to refocus unwieldy college course offerings on essential texts, not content steeped in identity politics. Faculty members argue that these laws promote a dangerously narrow perspective of what students should learn and undermine academics’ control over curriculums.

State lawmakers have the authority to regulate curriculums and set requirements for graduation, but higher education experts say that until recently, they have let public colleges and universities lead the way. That began to change in 2020 after the first Trump administration issued an executive order to stamp out “divisive concepts” about race and gender in the federal government, according to the American Association of University Professors and American Federation of Teachers.

Since then, the organizations have identified at least 29 bills introduced in more than 18 state legislatures to limit teachings about race, gender, and sexuality, some even using language drawn from President Donald Trump’s order. Those bills are part of a continuum of legislation, primarily in red states, seeking more influence over curriculum. This year, bills have been introduced in Iowa, Ohio, Utah, and Texas that take a more prescriptive approach to what must be taught in college classrooms.

“This is a new type of local intervention,” said Keith E. Whittington, founding chair of the Academic Committee of the Academic Freedom Alliance. “Some of the proposals are making more elaborate interventions about what the curriculum ought to look like and are also increasingly interested in the content.”

The new Ohio statute, which Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signed into law in March, goes as far as to require college students at the state’s public colleges and universities to read at least five essays from “The Federalist Papers” and Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations.” Christopher McKnight Nichols, a history professor at Ohio State University, said that it would be great for graduates to know more about the Constitution and how a bill becomes a law but that the Ohio statute takes too narrow a view.

“One of the things you see in these bills and civic efforts across the country is they talk about the American civic tradition as if there’s only one, and it’s rooted in just a few formative documents,” he said. “A responsible historian’s version has tons of different voices at all levels involved in multiple and overlapping traditions.”

When the legislation passed the state Senate in February, Sen. Jerry C. Cirino, the Republican who sponsored the bill, said the state “must return to teaching students how to think rather than what to think, and how to listen to opposing views.” But McKnight Nichols and other educators critical of the law say mandating content could undermine that objective.

In Utah, faculty are split on whether a new law establishing a civic center at Utah State University to oversee general education constitutes government overreach.

Gov. Spencer Cox (R), who signed off on the law in March, said the center will build out a general education curriculum focused on viewpoint diversity and civil discourse and become a model for all public colleges and universities in the state.

The law requires students seeking any degree to take three courses covering “primary texts predominantly from Western civilization,” such as ancient Greece, the “rise of Christianity,” and medieval Europe. The new courses will replace two English courses and a humanities course that will be replaced with a “great books” class.

The civic center is the latest intervention from conservative state lawmakers, who have eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; mandated post-tenure reviews; and banned Juneteenth and Pride flags since last year.

Shane Graham, a Utah State English professor, said conservative lawmakers seem intent on driving the state back into the 1950s when general education was centered on the contributions of White men.

“This idea that the best that has been thought and written has mostly happened in Southern Europe, as someone whose primary focus is Africa and the Caribbean, I find that highly objectionable,” he said. “Is this the message we want to send to students?”

Graham says the legislation was rushed through the legislature without input from faculty, whose academic freedom is being eroded.

Matt Sanders, a communications professor and co-chair of the general education committee at Utah State, agrees that the bill was rushed but believes faculty still have an opportunity to shape the content. He said about six faculty committees will be developing the curriculum this summer, with plans to roll it out in fall 2026. The law, he said, offers a lot more leeway than an earlier bill and gives subject experts a say.

“We found a way to both recognize the state legislature’s concern and also preserve faculty governance,” Sanders said. “We’re not told what to teach or how to teach it outside of just broad viewpoint diversity and seminal texts and other things that are the hallmark of a liberal general education.”

Sen. John D. Johnson, the Republican who sponsored the bill, said he is hoping “to restore clarity, coherence, and civic purpose to higher education,” which has been “drifting away from intellectual seriousness, from moral purpose.”

“It’s not about mandating conclusions but recovering the courage to ask enduring questions,” Johnson said. “I want graduates who can think freely, write clearly and lead wisely. That’s not ideology — it’s citizenship.”

Graham still worries that Johnson’s vision for general education will lead to the micromanagement of course catalogues by unqualified politicians. But Sanders says that faculty at Utah State are in a much better situation than their counterparts in other states where lawmakers want a greater say in college curriculum, such as in Florida.

Florida is the epicenter of Republican-led higher education changes to root out what Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has called woke ideology. While the courts enjoined a 2022 law known as the “Stop Woke Act” that limits how professors can discuss race and gender, a subsequent 2023 statute restricting the scope of core classes is in full effect and upending general education in the state.

In January, the Florida Board of Governors and the State Board of Education approved the elimination of hundreds of classes, many that touch on race and gender, from the core catalogues at Florida’s 40 public colleges and universities to comply with the law.

The statute bans general education courses that “distort significant historical events or include a curriculum that teaches identity politics” or are “based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities.” It also says core courses in the humanities “must include selections from the Western canon.”

Sharon Austin, a political science professor at the University of Florida, saw her two courses — Politics of Race, and Black Horror and Social Justice — removed from the school’s general education offerings. The classes are still available at the university as electives, but she said there is less incentive for students to take them. If enrollment in the courses plummets, it will be easier for the university to justify ending them altogether.

Austin, who is a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the law, said there is a double standard in what constitutes identity politics. A course called Faith and Reason in Jewish Thought Classes was spared at UF, while scores of classes that deal with Black identity were purged, she noted.

The University of Florida referred questions about curriculum choices to the Board of Governors, which said it could not comment on the course because of the ongoing lawsuit.

“Not allowing our courses to be offered for gen-ed credit says they’re inferior … they’re not important,” Austin said. “With this being a part of a national movement, it could lead to the elimination of African American studies programs and departments. Things can get much worse.