After five hours, SB 235 passed with eight yeas and two nays, and SB 289 passed with seven yeas and three nays, moving the bill forward through the legislative process.
This story was originally published by TheStatehouseFile.com
By Chloe White
TheStatehouseFile.com
January 28, 2025
On Tuesday, the Indiana Senate passed two bills regarding DEI on to their third readings without discussion.
Senate Bill 289, authored by Sen. Gary Byrne, R-Byrneville, and Sen. Tyler Johnson, R-Leo, mandates that school corporations, charter schools, state agencies and political subdivisions post informational training modules regarding nondiscrimination, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), sexual identity, and personal bias. The information must be available online, but the organization must not endorse the material.
The bill also bars agencies from enforcing strict bias or aiming to persuade individuals to follow specific opinions or beliefs. It would require that state-mandated curriculum be rewritten to adhere to the bill.
SB 289 allows for parents, employers and students to bring civil action against an institution if it is found to harbor bias.
Senate Bill 235, also written by Byrne and Johnson, aims to limit DEI initiatives within state agencies, public universities and health profession licensing boards.
It also removes DEI-specific rules for licensing health-care workers and requires standardized tests for getting into medical programs.
Additionally, the bill allows the attorney general to take legal action against state educational institutions that do not comply with these regulations.
When the bills were in the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, they received hours of testimony, 10 days after Gov. Mike Braun signed Executive Order 24-14, which eliminated DEI in Indiana’s state executive branches.
Randy Hudgins testified in opposition to SB 289. He spoke of his 20 years of experience as a U.S history teacher at Warren Central High School and the struggles he would have to teach his curriculum effectively if the bill were to be enacted.
“It forces teachers to just have a standard curriculum that they follow and not allow themselves to be, to make their gifts evident in the classroom,” said Hudgins.
Mother and student Claire Nolan also testified in opposition to SB 289, she said, in the interest of her child and other children who may be affected by the passing of the bill.
“Our state is growing, there is amazing culture in our state. If we do not prepare our children to connect with each other, to build relationships, to love one another, to be neighbors and to problem solve together, then we’ll continue to see the violence that we’re seeing today, the stress, the suicide rates,” said Nolan.
Committee member Sen. Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis, shared his thoughts on the hours-long meeting on his Facebook page afterward.
“Had extensive discussions in Judiciary committee today about DEI and discrimination based on stereotypes of race, ethnicity and sex. These stereotypes are detrimental to our communities,” Taylor wrote.
Ellise Smith is the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Indiana University Indianapolis and testified in opposition to SB 235.
“A lot of the information presented today has come from misconceptions. We don’t come from a space of anger; we come from looking at the historical data,” said Smith. “I oppose this bill because, again, it’s not thinking about the larger picture because when we are all gone, we still have to leave a society behind.”
After five hours, SB 235 passed with eight yeas and two nays, and SB 289 passed with seven yeas and three nays, moving the bill forward through the legislative process.