On Jan. 20, the Goldwater Institute sent a letter to The Argonaut. In this letter, the Goldwater Institute makes an argument for why the Idaho Attorney General, Raúl Labrador, should investigate the Idaho State Board of Education about efforts to undermine DEI bans.
Last year, Idaho signed the Goldwater Institute’s Freedom from Indoctrination Act into law, which is in Idaho code as 67-5909D Freedom of Inquiry in Higher Education, Chapter 59, Title 67. This law prohibits public universities in Idaho from mandating that students take courses, programs, or instructions that are derived from or promote concepts of critical theory or “DEI.” The purpose of this law is to supposedly prevent students from taking courses that promote ideological indoctrination, as well as to preserve student choice by not having these courses required for degrees or certificates.
The key points of Goldwater Institute’s argument are that several public universities in Idaho are not complying with the new Freedom of Inquiry in Higher Education Act, specifically how students at the University of Idaho who are pursuing a bachelor’s degree in sociology are required to take SOC 2010 Introduction to Inequity and Justice.
Under section (3) of 67-5909D, an institution can have an exemption granted for a program or course: “Every institution of higher education in the state of Idaho shall provide a procedure to allow the governing board of the institution of higher education to exempt, upon written request to the board, any academic degree program requirements of any major, minor, certificate, or department the title of which clearly establishes its course of study as primarily focused on racial, ethnic, or gender studies from the prohibitions of subsection (2)(f) and (g) of this section, provided that a student may not be required or otherwise compelled to enroll in any such program, department, or course in order to satisfy the requirements of any other academic degree program, including general education requirements, or any other major, minor, or certificate requirements.”
That is what UI did for several programs and courses, including SOC 2010 for sociology majors. They followed the legal route to have an exemption granted. The Goldwater Institute is arguing that, even though UI followed the law and was granted exemption by the State Board of Education, the Attorney General should still investigate UI.
The Goldwater Institute’s issue with courses at UI isn’t legal – UI followed the letter of the law and got approval from Idaho’s governing body of higher education. Goldwater Institute’s issue is purely ideological. Why are we letting the ideology of a lobbying group set standards for higher education?
The Goldwater Institute claims that UI is committing “political indoctrination” by “mandating DEI courses.” However, isn’t political indoctrination when an outside institution bans students from learning ideas, theories and prospectives that the institution disagrees with?
That is exactly what the Goldwater Institute is doing. They are trying to indoctrinate students to become less educated and informed about the diverse cultures and ideas in the world. They are trying to intimidate the university to follow what they believe is right by threatening the Idaho Attorney General.
Students deserve a well-rounded education not dictated by a lobbying group.
Christopher Sprague can be reached at [email protected].