The bill, known as SB129, bans publicly-funded institutions from maintaining DEI offices or teaching what the bill calls ‘divisive concepts’ about race and identity.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has signed a bill banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in publicly-funded colleges, making the southern state one of the newest Republican-led states to enact broad measures against what they claim is a leftward tilt in the US education.
The bill, known as SB129, bans institutions from maintaining DEI offices or teaching what the bill calls “divisive concepts” about race and identity, including discussions of whether “slavery and racism are aligned with the founding principles of the United States”. It authorizes state agencies to “discipline or terminate employees or contractors who violate” the law.
It also requires them to designate toilets as only for men or women, a move against transgender rights advocates’ push for gender-neutral toilets.
“My administration has and will continue to value Alabama’s rich diversity, however, I refuse to allow a few bad actors … go under the acronym of DEI, using unpaid funds, to push their liberal political movement,” Ivey said in a statement.
The law is due to take effect in October.
The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) has announced it will continue job action next week, as the government continues to tout “record” spending in its 2024/2025 provincial budget.
Teachers across the province will withdraw from extracurricular participation for all of next week, while some divisions will see teachers withdraw noon-hour supervision on Monday.
Saskatchewan teachers have been without a contract since August and bargaining on a new contract remains at a standstill.
Both sides of the labor dispute refuse to budget on the issues of class size and complexity.
Saskatoon Morning20:28Saskatchewan’s budget is projected to have a $273.2 million dollar deficit for 2024-25
Host Candice Lipski talks with Finance Minister Donna Harpauer about her latest budget, and then gets some analysis from Haizhen Mou, a professor at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan.
Finance Minister Donna Harpauer told CBC’s Saskatoon Morning this week that any discussion with the STF has been difficult.
“The challenge that we’re having with the Teachers’ Federation is we feel that they should go to the bargaining table and have the discussions, but they are not defining clearly what it