A new legislation bill will limit certain “divisive topics” to be a part of diversity and sensitivity trainings. 

House File 744 requires the Board of Regents to develop free speech training for faculty members. The bill states that if a faculty member is found to have discriminated against a student’s right to free speech, the institution may discipline or fire the faculty member. 

House File 802 faced lots of opposition from House Democrats, and the bill was debated for over three hours. The bill states that “divisive concepts” cannot be taught in training or curriculum at Iowa’s schools or governmental agencies. These concepts include the idea an individual is consciously or unconsciously racist, sexist or oppressive due to their race or sex, or that the U.S. or Iowa are systemically racist or sexist.

The bill resembles a bill former President Donald Trump signed last year to oppose diversity training that uses critical race theory. The bill was blocked by a federal judge and President Joe Biden rescinded it in January.

House Republicans said the bill would prohibit concepts that stem from critical race theory. 

“I think we have to have these robust discussions,” Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, the floor manager of the bill, said during the debate. “I think we can do that without scapegoating … that the entire nation is racist or that one group has to be this or that. I think that takes us in the wrong direction.”

Democrats in the House spoke their opposition to the bill, saying it will have an effect on needed discussions about issues like structural racism and implicit bias. Some Democrats said the bill lacked clarity and goes against the Republicans’ push for free speech issues. 

“We can’t say on one hand we want freedom of speech, on another hand… say we want to hear both sides, then stifle those sides,” Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad, D-Des Moines, said during the debate. 

A concern for these bills is the effect on universities, colleges and schools. Some lawmakers think this bill would create confusion about what schools can teach. 

Heidi Doellinger, director of education preparation, said it could be challenging based on some of the expectations educators have, such as the model code of ethics from the National Teaching Standards. 

“The expectations to include multiple lenses and multiple viewpoints in conversations, how that would all fit together would require some real in-depth look and could pose some potential challenges,” Doellinger said. 

If this legislation is passed universities and schools will have to look at their curriculum and training to make it align with the bill.  

Doellinger said she thinks there will be some challenging conversations that would need to happen about how the university operationalizes this legislation and what it means for faculty and their coursework.

“I would think that there would probably be a lot of conversations around how essential conversations, topics and discussions could still occur given the new constraints that would be in place if the legislation passed,” Doellinger said. 

Katy Swalwell, associate professor in education, said the proposal of this legislation has an effect on students and faculty who are committed to disrupting racism, sexism and other forms of oppression.

“It also emboldens people who feel that the campus is ‘theirs’ and seek to push out or silence people from marginalized or minoritized groups,” Swalwell said. “It generally sets back efforts to make campus a genuinely more inclusive, supportive, healthy community — efforts that are already incredibly difficult to move forward thanks to deeply rooted institutional oppression.”    

Some lawmakers have expressed their concern the impact of not teaching “divisive topics” will have on faculty and students.  

Swalwell said it is already visible what will happen if these “divisive” topics are not taught.

“We can see the results of that all around us because we as educators have, generally speaking, not done a good job of engaging students on these topics in a meaningful, sustained, systematic way for generations,” Swalwell said. “The ignorance of people with dominant identities is incredibly dangerous.”

Swalwell said learning about how racism and sexism work is essential to building a world where racism and sexism no longer have power. 

“It may make men or white people or others in dominant positions uncomfortable to learn how these systems work, but acknowledging the harm caused is one of the first steps in stopping that harm,” Swalwell said.   

The Iowa Senate has its own version of this bill on “divisive topics.” Senate File 478 passed with a 33-14 vote. The bill that was passed included required free speech training at educational institutions and discipline for faculty members who restrict protected speech. The bill did not include “divisive topics” that are in House File 802. 

Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, supported the Senate bill because he confirmed it would not affect any of the existing training in Iowa’s universities, colleges or schools. 

Quirmbach said he thinks House File 744 will fly through the Senate but House File 802 he hopes to see not passed. Quirmbach added that file 802 is unacceptable. 

“The bill deals with every branch and level of government, which I don’t think is separation of power,” Quirmbach said. 

The educational committee is set to discuss the two bills next week.