Ohio higher education bill aims to take controversial beliefs out of classrooms

A Senate Bill is looking to take controversial beliefs out of the classroom. If passed, the Ohio Higher Education Enforcement Act would force universities to modify the way they teach about "controversial" topics, such as climate change or abortion. 

Educators worry if the bill passes, this would amount to a legislative attempt to shut down free discussion. 

“I think this bill would be detrimental to Higher Ed in Ohio. There are a number of provisions to the bill that are troubling both from an academic standpoint to a union standpoint,” said Mark Vopat, President of YSU-OEA.

Under the Ohio Higher Education Enhancement Act, taking a side on any controversial issue is prohibited.

The bill defines controversial beliefs as “any belief or policy that is the subject of political controversy, including issues such as climate policies, electoral politics, foreign policy, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, immigration policy, marriage or abortion.”

Sen. Jerry Cirino, sponsor of the bill, said this would not limit topics in the classroom, but instead encourage students to arrive at their own conclusions.

“They should be getting students to chime in. They should welcome dissenting opinions among the students, but the professor's job is to teach the students how to look at an issue, evaluate it and arrive at their own conclusions. I don’t want to see indoctrination on either side of the political spectrum,” said Cirino.

Still, Universities fear the language in the bill would have a chilling effect on academic freedom, even if what’s taught is a fact.

“It would chill faculty being able to bring their expertise to the classroom. And when the academic freedom of faculty is abridged, it’s really the students who suffer because they’re not able to benefit from the faculty expertise,” said Deborah Smith, president of Kent State Chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

Vopat worries the union provisions, like preventing unions from negotiating on tenure, would drive away academic talent, and diminish the quality of institutions.

“They’ve made tenure not something for bargaining. So what that does is it imperials a number of people’s jobs, but it also means that we can’t recruit people for new researchers, scholars, academics, from out of state,” said Vopat. "This bill is very much reminiscent of what went on in Florida a couple years ago. So I think this will affect the quality of the institutions. And the minute the quality of the institutions go down, students start to look elsewhere."

Under the bill, students would be required to take a three hour American Civics course. There would also be new laws surrounding mandatory diversity, equity and inclusion training.

“It's been a long time since there has been a major overhaul, and that’s what Senate Bill 83 is intended to do,” said Cirino.

The bill has already cleared the Ohio Senate, but still needs to clear the House.