RALEIGH — A bill filed by Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Eden) seeks to eliminate the programs and offices using diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI in the state’s K-12 public schools.
Senate Bill 227 was filed on March 3 and has already picked up over a dozen additional sponsors.
“We cannot teach our nation’s history without acknowledging our past,” Berger said in a press release. “But we can teach history without forcing our educators and students to embrace and adopt ideologies inconsistent with equality.”
The bill asserts that DEI programs force people to judge others based on race, sex or other factors and stifle diversity of thought. It references President Donald Trump’s January 2025 executive order and emphasizes the importance of maintaining federal funding compliance.
The legislation would prohibit public schools in the state from promoting “divisive concepts,” engaging in discriminatory practices or maintaining DEI offices. The provision means that districts like Wake County, which operates an “Office of Equity Affairs (OEA),” will have to dismantle such offices and positions.
The bill now resides with the House Rules, Calendar and Operations Committee after passing its first reading in that chamber. The Senate passed the measure down party lines by a vote of 28-18 on Mar 11.
According to documents obtained by North State Journal, Wake’s OEA has spent at least $12.135 million on or by itself since its 2014-15 inception. In 2023-24, OEA spent more than $1.8 million on salaries, travel, workshops and other expenses.
Additionally, Berger’s bill would block developing, purchasing or providing professional development with DEI or divisive concepts laid out in the bill, as well as contracting with entities for professional development on those topics.
As with its OEA, Wake County Public Schools’ training offerings that include DEI and Critical Race Theory would have to be terminated to comply with the bill. North State Journal has investigated these trainings over the past four years, noting that the district has employed multiple outside vendors for such training, including state Sen. Graig Meyer’s (D-Orange) DEI outfit The Equity Collaborative. To date, Wake County Schools has paid Meyer’s group $440,500 for CRT and DEI-related training.
Language in the bill requires annual certification of compliance from all public school units, with initial implementation reports due Sept. 1 detailing reductions in force, spending changes and how savings have been redirected.
Items prohibited by the bill include:
- Engaging in or advocating for discriminatory practices
- Compelling students, teachers, administrators or other school employees to affirm divisive concepts
- Providing instruction to students on divisive concepts
- Approving, recommending or requiring professional development that includes divisive concepts
- Providing entities access for delivering professional development with divisive concepts
- Maintaining offices, divisions or units promoting divisive concepts or named “diversity, equity, and inclusion”
- Employing or assigning staff whose duties include promoting divisive concepts
- Awarding continuing education credit for professional development prohibited by the bill
The filing of Senate Bill 227 follows the creation of an “End DEI” portal created by the U.S. Department of Education (USED) at the end of February.
The portal, EndDEI.Ed.Gov, will allow “parents, students, teachers, and the broader community to submit reports of discrimination based on race or sex in publicly-funded K-12 schools.”
According to the USED press release, the portal lets parents submit the name of a school or district and details of DEI practices being used. USED says it will use parent submissions as a “guide to identify potential areas for investigation.”
