SB1694

THE CONTEXT: Statute directs the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) to establish curricula and designate courses at the three public universities that, in ABOR's judgement, will best serve the interests of the state. ABOR must also submit a budget request for each public university that includes the estimated tuition and fee revenue available to support the programs described in the public university's budget request, as well as annually adopt an operating budget for each public university.

WHAT THE BILL DID: The final vetoed version would make a higher education institution ineligible to receive state monies in any fiscal year in which it offers courses on DEI, prohibit the State Treasurer, ABOR and the Arizona Department of Administration from distributing state monies to a higher education institution in a fiscal year in which the higher education institution offers courses on DEI, and define course on DEI to mean any course that includes materials or instruction in the course description, overview, objectives, proposed student learning outcomes, exams or graded assignments that: a) relate contemporary American society to critical theory, whiteness, systemic or institutional racism, anti-racism, microaggressions, systemic, implicit or unconscious bias, intersectionality, gender identity, social justice, cultural competence, allyship, race-based reparations, race-based privilege, race-based DEI or gender-based DEI; b) promote the idea that racially neutral or colorblind laws, policies or institutions perpetuate oppression, injustice, race-based privilege, including white supremacy and white privilege, or inequity by failing to actively differentiate on the basis of race, sex or gender; c) promote the differential treatment of any individual or group based on race or ethnicity in contemporary American society; or d) promote the idea that a student is biased on account of their race or sex.

WHY IT MATTERED: The practical reason for this bill was to give students, families, and schools a clearer statewide rule for higher education. It would make a higher education institution ineligible to receive state monies in any fiscal year in which it offers courses on DEI, and would also prohibit the State Treasurer, ABOR and the Arizona Department of Administration from distributing state monies to a higher education institution in a fiscal year in which the higher education institution offers courses on DEI, rather than leave the current rule unchanged.