Bills reforming higher education in Iowa advance through House

DES MOINES — Republican lawmakers Wednesday advanced a handful of higher education bills aiming to — among other things — improve civics education and increase intellectual diversity while also curtailing diversity, equity and inclusion programming across not only Iowa’s public universities but its private campuses, too.

“For our private institutions, honestly, this bill should be the least of their worries,” Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, said of House Study Bill 60, which would bar private colleges and universities that participate in the Iowa Tuition Grant program from having, establishing or staffing a DEI office.

“There's an executive order that President Trump has signed that I think they should be worried about much more,” Collins said in moving the bill forward. “And I hope that our institutions begin to reach compliance, not only with this bill but also the executive order that President Trump has signed."

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President Donald Trump’s order eliminates DEI policies and programs across the federal government, also directing departments and agencies to take “strong action to end private sector DEI discrimination.”

Federal funding agencies, in response, instructed grant recipients — including those at private universities — to “cease and desist all DEI activities” previously required in their contracts.

Likewise, the bill working its way through the Iowa Legislature — clearing a House subcommittee Wednesday — echoes recent legislation banning DEI efforts across Iowa’s public universities by stripping access to the Iowa Tuition Grant for any private college or university maintaining, establishing or staffing a DEI office.

Although the Legislature doesn’t provide direct appropriations to private campuses, giving lawmakers less control over those institutions, it does appropriate millions for the 56-year-old Iowa Tuition Grant, including $52.7 million in the current budget year.

In the 2024 budget year, 8,326 students received an average grant award of $6,170 to attend a nonprofit private institution — all of which rely on the tuition grant program to maintain the high percentage of financial aid they boast.

“If it weren't for Drake's commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, I would not be going to school in Iowa and the vast majority of my peers would say the same,” Adam Bessman, a first-year undergraduate at Drake University in Des Moines, told lawmakers Wednesday in opposing the bill blocking Iowa Tuition Grant access to campuses offering DEI support.

“Not only that, but as a transgender man, I wouldn't be alive,” he said. “Literally, I would not be alive if it weren't for the support that DEI programs give me and other minority students.”

With DEI bans across Iowa’s public universities, Bessman said, “private institutions are the only options left for students like me.”

But others spoke in support of the measure, including Josiah Oleson with The Family Leader, who said he graduated from the private Coe College in Cedar Rapids.

“The DEI stuff might be well-intentioned, but the reality is that we've seen how it works out,” Oleson said. “And the fact is, it hasn't.”

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Many of Iowa’s private campuses today maintain DEI offices, employees, programming, action plans and statements — including Coe College, Mount Mercy University, Cornell College, Drake University and Grinnell College, among others.

“Specific areas of focus include racial/ethnic diversity, religious and spiritual life, LGBTQIA+ inclusion and internationalism,” according to Coe’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. “Anyone is welcome to participate in DEI activities at Coe, and students from underrepresented and marginalized groups are particularly encouraged to participate.”

‘Concerns about bias’

Republican lawmakers also advanced a bill requiring students to take an American history and civil government course to graduate; another spelling out general education requirements, including American and Western heritage curriculum; and one creating a school of intellectual freedom at the University of Iowa.

“This bill is an overreach of legislative power, and there's no logical justification for being this specific in the course material,” Rep. Monica Kurth, D-Davenport, said in opposing the bill requiring American history and civil government to graduate.

“The prescribed course material is taken from model legislation proposed by Civics Alliance and the National Association of Scholars — two undeniably conservative groups,” she said.

Countering Kurth was Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R-Hull, who noted the bill calls for education on historic texts like the Declaration of Independence or the Articles of Confederation.

“I don't know how there is a political ideology being pushed when we're teaching kids to read letters from Birmingham jail or the Gettysburg Address or the Emancipation Proclamation or the Federalist Papers,” he said. “If that's a political ideology, your guy's political party has to do a lot of reflecting.”

On the bill that would create a new school of intellectual freedom, lawmakers sparred over the juxtaposition of wanting more ideological diversity but less DEI programming.

“'I’m surprised that my colleagues on the left don't want this, because this actually has a diversion appeal for our universities — it actually has a process that would allow for difference of opinion at our universities,” Rep. John Wills, R-Spirit Lake, said. “Representative Kurth, you even made the point this morning when you said that when you have multiple viewpoints, our universities can thrive. This offers multiple viewpoints.”

Rep. Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, said a school focused on intellectual freedom and intellectual diversity “sounds great.”

“But I would say that if there is perceived bias and concerns about bias, the way to address that is not to introduce additional bias.”

Tom Barton and Erin Murphy of The Gazette Des Moines Bureau contributed to this report. Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com