(NEW YORK) – PEN America criticized two bills now moving through the Mississippi legislature for being in “a race to the bottom,” noting that they would impose impossibly broad restrictions on diversity, equity, and inclusion programming and instruction at universities and K-12 schools and include provisions that both prohibit and compel speech in the classroom on issues related to sex and gender.
The two bills each include extreme provisions that would severely curtail programming and instruction in Mississippi. HB 1193 goes far beyond just banning programs that promote diversity and inclusion at public colleges and universities and at public and private K-12 schools; it would prohibit any required classroom lesson or assignment aimed at “increasing awareness or understanding of issues related to race, sex, color, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion or national origin.” In an ironic contradiction, it would also compel schools and colleges to “teach, promote, and distribute information…that there are two genders.” What’s more, if a school receivesmore than two complaints alleging violations, the state is required to withhold state funding and grants, whether or not those complaints are deemed valid. Meanwhile, SB 2515 would create a sweeping DEI ban for universities that targets any program or event “designed or implemented to favor” any identity group.
“It’s hard to say which of these two bills is worse – it’s truly a race to the bottom,” said Amy Reid, Freedom to Learn senior manager at PEN America. “Taken together, the bills seek to ban not just DEI programs, but also a range of classroom concepts so broad that it could keep an American history teacher from teaching about the abolition of slavery or the passage of the 19th Amendment, or a biologist from teaching college students about the mechanics of reproduction. In particular, the provisions of HB 1193 that both prohibit required lessons that ‘increase awareness or understanding’ of issues related to race and gender, while at the same time mandating promotion of the idea that ‘there are two genders,’ put educators in an impossible double bind.”
“Legislators should not defund schools simply on the basis of receiving complaints, in a bald-faced effort to scare teachers into silence,” Reid continued. “Nor should they ban, as SB 2515 does, anyone offering a viewpoint “designed to favor” women or racial minorities, such as a panel encouraging women or minority students to consider a STEM career. All of these provisions are censorship, and none of them have any place on a college campus or school. Mississippi lawmakers should oppose these bills and protect the freedom to learn on campus and in the classroom.”
About PEN America
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org.
Contact: Malka Margolies, mmargolies@pen.org, 718-530-3582