HuffPost reported that both chambers of the Republican-controlled Texas state legislature passed Senate Bill 17 on Sunday. If it becomes law, the bill would give all public universities in the state six months to eliminate all their DEI offices, and diversity training and other related programs would also be ended within this period. Abbott is expected to sign the bill into law this week.

Universities will still be allowed to teach courses and conduct research related to diversity and inclusion, and admissions policies will not be affected. However, diversity and inclusion advocates argue that the new Texas law will have a chilling effect on larger efforts to bring students of color into Texas schools and keep them there. The New York Times reported a warning from the Texas Conference of the American Association of University Professors, which argues that the new law will tell prospective college students “that our state is not committed to welcoming students from all backgrounds and to building a public higher education system that is truly inclusive and supportive of all.”

The move by Texas is the latest Republican effort to roll back or restrict DEI initiatives in education and other areas of public life. DEI initiatives have been implemented in colleges, universities, corporations and other institutions around the country, especially in the immediate aftermath of the protests over the murder of George Floyd in 2020. These initiatives, however, have been followed by a conservative backlash, with Republicans in various states passing or proposing legislation to roll back or outright ban DEI efforts. The Associated Press has been tracking dozens of anti-DEI laws proposed this year alone. In addition to Texas, states that have proposed such legislation include Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia. Some of these bills prevent universities from making DEI training mandatory, while others restrict any state funding from going to DEI offices.

Florida has been a pioneer in this regard. Under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, the state passed the harshest anti-DEI laws in the country. DeSantis’ anti-“woke” legislation has attacked not only DEI initiatives that relate to hiring and employee training, but it also severely restricts discussions of race, racism and other forms of identity and discrimination within public classrooms. The policies have led to restrictions on texts as innocuous as Amanda Gorman’s presidential inauguration poem. The NAACP recently issued a travel warning against Florida, citing the harsh legal climate there for Black people and other minority communities; Texas Democratic legislator Ron Reynolds told his fellow state legislators not to “let Texas be the next state to get a travel advisory” as they debated the anti-DEI bill.

As DeSantis begins his campaign for president of the United States, he has pledged to take his anti-“woke” agenda nationwide, a move that is likely to embolden more Republican officials to push anti-DEI legislation. DeSantis and Abbott have been at the forefront of championing restrictive legislation, and these conservative leaders appear poised to expand their efforts, with dire consequences for already marginalized populations in their states and around the nation.