Ohio Senate Bill 1 Takes the Lead Against Woke Schools
April 1, 2025
Ohio State House, Columbus, Ohio
News Article
The Trump administration’s attack on the status quo in higher education—reducing federal research grants, withholding money from Ivy League schools to enforce civil-rights law, trying to shut down the Department of Education—has appropriately gained much attention. An equally important revolution is occurring at the state and local level.
Most American college students attend public schools that receive funding from state governments, many of which have been making drastic changes.
Alabama, Florida, Kansas and Utah have abolished or severely restricted divisive diversity, equity and inclusion programs that promote ideological conformity and race-based admissions. Arizona, Tennessee and Texas have created semi-autonomous units within state universities designed to promote conservative and libertarian thinking.
But by far the most comprehensive reform is happening in an unlikely place: Ohio—a state that seldom takes the lead in bold public-policy initiatives.
On Wednesday the Ohio Legislature passed far-reaching changes, which Gov. Mike DeWine has signaled he would sign. Senate Bill 1 would abolish DEI at state institutions, ban faculty strikes, require meaningful annual faculty evaluation including post-tenure reviews, mandate institutional neutrality on contentious political issues, obligate schools to publish class syllabuses online, and require that undergraduates take a civics course to graduate.
Opposition to this bill reached a fever pitch, with more than 1,500 people and groups submitting written testimony against the bill across its legislative journey. Faculty senates at multiple universities passed resolutions of opposition to the legislative action. University presidents, however, largely decided to remain neutral on the bill. Defending the current state of higher education these days is now seen as bad politics.
The hero in this Ohio Legislative coup de main was state Sen. Jerry Cirino, a septuagenarian medical-device entrepreneur and family man, who entered state politics in 2020. Mr. Cirino introduced and largely drafted Senate Bill 1. Without him, there wouldn’t have been a bill as comprehensive as the one that passed. Mr. Cirino believes higher education is too important to allow itself to self-immolate.
Universities are wards of the state at both the state and federal level. They are dependent on outside support from government and private philanthropy for survival, unable to survive on tuition fees alone. Those supporters expect a standard of accountability from the academic communities they generously defend and fund. Ohio education is better for it.
