I have been following some great higher education bills in the states this year. Some of the best policies are in Senate Bill 37 in Texas, a sequel to SB 17 that we saw in 2023. The greatness of SB 17 was to ban “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) across public universities in Texas. The greatness of SB 37 is to empower governing boards to reform the general education curriculum and ensure that senior administrators are aligned with the board’s agenda of education instead of indoctrination.
Most importantly, SB 37 makes clear what Texas students—and the Texas taxpayers who subsidize their education—should expect in the general education courses that all students must take. These requirements are that the core courses must meet:
- be “foundational and fundamental to a sound postsecondary education;”
- be “necessary to prepare students for civic and professional life;”
- “equip students for participation in the workforce and in the betterment of society;” and
- “ensure a breadth of knowledge” while meeting accreditation standards.
An observer might wonder why such obvious goals must be required by the state legislature. Aren’t these the normal, basic goals of a general education?
[RELATED: SB17 Banned Race-Based Hiring. Texas Universities Ignore It.]
Unfortunately, no. Many colleges and universities across the country fail this basic test of providing fundamental courses that broadly prepare students for civic and professional life. Two colleagues and I wrote a whole book about this failure across the Ivy League.
Without embarrassing the friends of any particular Texas university, it is enough to say that Texas universities fail this test, too. At one university, the “Racism and Antiracism” course meets a core requirement. Far from fitting the criteria above, this course “examines the theories and definitions of racism across several fields,” including “cultural studies, postcolonial studies, and gender/sexuality studies.” One of the sections of this course even “focuses on anti-racist activism, particularly within people of color and immigrant communities.”
SB 37 will make governing boards responsible for ensuring that the huge amounts of money put into Texas universities are used to educate students to serve the interests of Texas in having well-formed, productive citizens. Biased, frivolous, self-indulgent, and narrow courses will no longer have a place in the general education at public universities in Texas.
In the right hands, this tool for curriculum reform is huge.
Second, a university’s governing board must approve or deny all hires at the level of a provost—one level below the president—and “may overturn any hiring decision for the position of vice president or dean.” Usually, a board only hires and fires the president. But this isn’t enough to ensure that campus leaders actually execute the board’s agenda. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for example, the provost put a DEI activist in charge of key elements of faculty hiring. SB 37 would enable boards to catch such mistakes on the front end before the damage is done.
[RELATED: Despite DEI Bans, Texas Keeps Funding DEI Activist Pipelines]
Third, the bill makes clear the final decision-making authority of an institution’s governing board over the faculty and their faculty senates. “Shared governance” remains insofar as faculty senates retain an advisory role—but only an advisory role. This is important in the current university environment because so many of the faculty think of themselves as activists with an agenda of transforming Texas and American society rather than teaching objectively.
It is rather unfortunate that these three reforms have become necessary. The people used to be able to trust our universities, from the faculty to the administration, to offer a strong curriculum without indoctrination. That’s largely not true anymore. It’s why we’ve seen more and more state legislators step in.
If universities earn the people’s trust at some point in the future, it would make sense to return their traditional prerogatives. But we are not there in Texas.
That’s why the final element of SB 37 is so deeply warranted: an ombudsman who can issue civil investigative demands to pursue complaints. The ombudsman can investigate alleged violations of the code regarding the general education curriculum, and several other parts of the education code. Colleges can’t easily hide the ball when they must reveal their records to the ombudsman.
Congratulations to the legislators who have done so much to advance this bill, particularly Senator Brandon Creighton and Representative Matt Shaheen, for developing these provisions. Texas students, parents, and taxpayers will thank them for generations to come.
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Image: “Austin – Texas Capitol: Senate Chamber” by Wally Gobetz on Flickr
