NC Senate Dems use anti-DEI bill to go after school choice

A bill aimed at curbing the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion agenda in public school classrooms cleared the Senate on March 11 in a party-line vote. Democrats attempted to amend the bill to weaken North Carolina’s two school-choice programs.

Senate Bill 227 — filed by Republicans Senate leader Phil Berger of Randolph County, Sen. Michael Lee of New Hanover County, and Sen. Brad Overcash of Gaston County — aims to remove DEI offices, staff, and divisive concepts from schools, ensuring education focuses on core curriculum without promoting ideologies deemed inconsistent with equality.

The legislation outlines 12 divisive concepts, such as the belief that one race or sex is inherently superior to another, the idea that meritocracy is inherently racist or sexist, and the belief that the US was founded to oppress certain groups.

“The bill is not a ban on teaching history or discussing past injustices,” said Lee during debate on the Senate floor. “It does not prohibit individual research or study for students and teachers on accessing materials on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. It doesn’t eliminate all forms of professional development. It’s really just those related to teaching the divisive concepts.”

Democrats used the bill as an opportunity to go after school choice, the Opportunity Scholarship Program and ESA+ program for students with special needs specifically.

Sen. Lisa Grafstein, D-Wake, offered an amendment that would apply the language of the bill to any private school in the state that accepts Opportunity Scholarships, aimed “at combating discriminatory exclusion of students with disabilities as well as others in protected classes. Promoting and funding schools that discriminate based on disability is, by any definition, divisive and a violation of equal rights of students with disabilities.”

The amendment would have also put testing requirements and audits in place for schools that receive Opportunity Scholarships and for the ESA+ program.

Lee countered that he would be willing to work with Democrats to expand the state’s school choice programs. 

“I know not all private schools take exceptional children, and not all private schools can accommodate exceptional children. I would be happy to work with you on raising the Opportunity Scholarship to a level that we provide so that they can student families can afford that, rather than on the scale system right now,” Lee said.

The amendment was voted down.

Other Democrats spoke against the substance of the bill.

I find it deeply troubling that this bill seeks to erase fundamental truths about our nation’s history simply because they may cause discomfort,” said Sen. Val Applewhite, D-Cumberland. “I ask my colleagues: who gets to decide what is uncomfortable? Are we now prioritizing feelings over facts?”

The bill drops amid new policies from the Trump administration policies abandoning DEI efforts at the federal level.

Republicans in the Legislature began a push to ban DEI and Critical Race Theory from classrooms in 2021, but those efforts fell prey to then-Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto pen. In 2023, the House passed an anti-CRT Bill and sent it over to the Senate, but that chamber didn’t take up the measure.

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