Beyond the Culture Wars: The Real Story of State Policy and College Campuses

Posted by Higher Education Today on October 8, 2024

“There is a lot that state legislatures can do to reverse the illiberal takeover of higher education,” according to the Manhattan Institute in its 2023 issue brief, Abolish DEI Bureaucracies and Restore Colorblind Equality in Public Universities. As the field of play in issues from abortion rules to labor policy and workers’ rights shifts from Capitol Hill to individual statehouses, state lawmakers are increasingly shaping the national debate on higher education. This shift was underscored in 2021 by J.D. Vance, then a candidate for the U.S. Senate, when he delivered the keynote at the National Conservatism Conference titled “Universities are the Enemy,” which further propelled higher education into the center of the nation’s culture wars.

Now, the good news. The influence of state lawmakers is substantial, but it quietly goes far beyond the highly publicized debates over initialisms such as DEI and CRT. When you clear away the gamesmanship, there remains an opportunity to collaborate on initiatives that have bipartisan support as well as support from campuses and the broader community—initiatives that strengthen communities, enhance economic resilience, and expand educational access.

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