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A recent white paper by Isaac Kamola, director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, details the ongoing culture-war backlash against higher education in America, largely in response to the grassroots activism of Black Lives Matter in 2020 and increasing LGBTQ+ visibility.
More than 150 bills seeking to undermine academic freedom and intervene in university governance were introduced in state legislatures across the country during 2021-2023. While these bills are typically interpreted as an “organic” consequence of increasing polarization among Americans, the current wave of legislation targeting higher education is a coordinated effort between wealthy elites, a network of right-wing and libertarian think tanks, and Republican politicians at the state level.
The paper published by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) identifies 11 right-wing and libertarian think tanks responsible for manufacturing the cultural backlash against both K-12 and higher education. A steady stream of papers, op-eds, talking points, public events, and media appearances emanating from these groups have conveyed a false impression of intellectual legitimacy behind their arguments, which conservatives have leveraged for political capital. As a result, the inflammatory narrative that all college and university faculty are “liberal,” biased, “woke,” socialist or Marxist, and hostile to free speech and conservative values has taken hold in the mainstream.
The catalyst for the backlash against educational institutions and the accompanying wave of legislation can be traced back to an executive order signed by former President Trump in September 2020 as well as to the right-wing operative who set it into motion.
Unsurprisingly, the think tanks behind these attacks are prominent, influential, and well-connected operatives in the right-wing ecosphere. Seven of the 11 are members of the State Policy Network (SPN), a web of 167 far-right nonprofit organizations in 48 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom. SPN members play an integral role in ensuring the passage of legislation in state houses by providing academic legitimacy when called on to testify at hearings, producing “studies” or model legislation, and attracting media attention.
In addition, 8 of the 11 highlighted think tanks sit on the advisory board of Project 2025, a series of policy proposals from The Heritage Foundation outlining the sweeping authoritarian and Christian nationalist reforms conservatives expect to see if former President Donald Trump is reelected this year. While proposals promising to severely curtail reproductive rights and environmental protections have received the majority of public scrutiny, the 900+-page document also outlines a plan to radically alter how America’s educational system is funded and administered. Proposals include dramatically cutting federal funding for education, “rejecting gender ideology and critical race theory,” weakening accreditation standards, ending student loan forgiveness, strictly focusing higher education on job training and economic growth, and expanding “parental rights” and school choice, among other reform measures.
AAUP also identifies the top 25 donors to the 11 think tanks and SPN between 2020 and 2022, which include prominent right-wing 501(c)(3) nonprofits like the Roe Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Searle Freedom Trust, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, Leonard Leo’s 85 Fund, the Walton Family Foundation, Stand Together Fellowships (formerly the Charles Koch Institute), the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation, the Bradley Impact Fund, and the John William Pope Foundation.
However, a majority of funding for SPN and the think tanks comes from donor-advised funds, which means that the origin of the funds—the actual donor—is completely obscured. DonorsTrust, the preferred donor-advised funding conduit of right-wing billionaire families, is by far the biggest donor. Between 2020 and 2022, it contributed more than $37 million to 10 of the 11 think tanks and SPN. Other donor-advised funds in the top 25 list include the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, the National Christian Charitable Foundation, the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, the New Venture Fund, the Servant Foundation, and the Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust.
The catalyst for the backlash against educational institutions and the accompanying wave of legislation can be traced back to an executive order signed by former President Trump in September 2020 as well as to the right-wing operative who set it into motion. Executive Order 13950 made it illegal for federal agencies to incorporate “divisive concepts,” “race or sex stereotyping,” and “race or sex scapegoating” into their training protocols. Notably, Trump issued the executive order three weeks after right-wing activist Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at multiple conservative think tanks, appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight to disparage the concept of critical race theory (CRT) and call for an executive order banning professors from teaching it. The day after that appearance, Trump called Rufo to discuss the specifics of the executive order.
Though less well-known to the mainstream at the time, Rufo was already a relatively established figure on the right who has held (or currently holds) positions at the Claremont Institute, Heritage, the Pacific Research Institute, The Federalist Society, and the Manhattan Institute. A recent investigation by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and Important Context revealed the handful of right-wing billionaires and major foundations funding these think tanks. Rufo’s existing ties to both these groups and the donors behind them presaged the key players at the center of the full-fledged assault on higher education.
With millions of dollars in financial backing, right-wing and libertarian think tanks mobilized around promoting a reactionary legislative response to the “liberal excesses” of higher education. The legislative backlash began with “academic gag orders,” or bills seeking to ban CRT and other so-called “divisive concepts.” The AAUP white paper found that all but 19 of the 99 academic gag orders introduced in state houses between 2021 and 2023 drew on language taken directly from EO 13950, or from two model bills: the “Model School Board Language to Prohibit Critical Race Theory” drafted by the Center for Renewing America (CRA) and Heritage’s “Protecting K-2 Students from Discrimination.” This includes Florida’s infamous “Stop WOKE Act” (HB 7), which was signed into law in April 2022 and includes the definition of “divisive concepts” outlined in the Trump executive order and the CRA model bill.
Academic gag orders and anti-DEI bills have undoubtedly been the centerpieces of the right’s manufactured backlash against higher education.
Despite enthusiastic support from Republican politicians for these academic gag orders, only 10 of the 99 initially introduced passed between 2021 and 2023. As a result, conservative activists refocused their efforts and shifted their framing. During the 2023 legislative session alone, anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) bills were introduced in various states 40 separate times, and all of them addressed a combination of the same four objectives: ending mandatory DEI training, preventing the use of diversity statements in job applications and promotion materials, prohibiting hiring practices designed to increase diversity, and ending state funding for DEI offices and personnel altogether.
One example is Texas SB 17, which made it illegal for colleges and universities to “establish or maintain a diversity, equity, and inclusion office” or to “hire or assign an employee of the institution or contract with a third party to perform the[se] duties,” among other measures. The bill drew from model legislation produced by the Manhattan Institute and co-written by Rufo, Ilya Shapiro of the Manhattan Institute, and Matt Berenberg of the Goldwater Institute. Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) Senior Fellow Sherry Sylvester, TPPF’s Richard Johnson, Heritage’s Adam Kissel, and prominent Black conservative academic and politician Ben Carson testified in favor of the bill before the state Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education. TPPF’s Daniel Bonevack and a University of Texas professor who regularly works with TPPF testified in support of the same bill before the House Committee on Higher Education. Despite more than 100 witnesses who testified against the bill in either the Senate or House committee hearings, the small number of think tank employees proved to be sufficiently persuasive that SB 17 passed along party lines.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican politicians in the state proved to be just as receptive. There HB 931 redefined “loyalty tests” as including a commitment to “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” which effectively ended general consideration of diversity during the hiring process. Sections of the bill were taken directly from the model legislation known as “End Political Litmus Tests in Education Act,” which was co-written by Stanley Kurtz, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, along with fellows from the Martin Center and the Goldwater Institute. In March 2023, a month after HB 931 was introduced in the state legislature, DeSantis held a roundtable discussion titled “Exposing the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Scam.” Speakers at the event included Rufo, Claremont’s Scott Yenor, and Carrie Scheffield from the Independent Women’s Forum.
Academic gag orders and anti-DEI bills have undoubtedly been the centerpieces of the right’s manufactured backlash against higher education. However, other types of bills have also been promoted and introduced in state legislatures, including ones that weaken tenure and accreditation standards, and others that undermine existing academic governance. Between 2021 and 2023, bills attacking tenure for faculty were introduced 20 times in various state legislatures, with three of them passing. The original version of one of those bills, Texas SB 18, would have eradicated tenure for faculty members hired after September 1, 2023. Although this version didn’t pass, 2 of the 3 advocates to testify in favor of it were Thomas Lindsay of TPPF and Adam Kissel of Heritage.
The aforementioned Florida HB 931 includes provisions to institutionalize “intellectual diversity” by establishing an Office of Public Policy at each of Florida’s public colleges and universities, which undermines academic governance. This section comes directly from a model bill published by the National Association of Scholars and written by Kurtz. Similarly, Ohio’s SB 117 appropriated $24 million over two years to create “intellectual diversity” centers at the state’s public universities. Representatives from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, the National Association of Scholars, Speech First, the Jack Miller Center, and Heritage all spoke in favor of the bill, which was ultimately passed during the 2023 legislative session.
“It is important to follow the money when examining the culture war attacks on higher education,” Kamola told CMD. “The goal of plutocrats and billionaires has been to paint all higher education as threatening to American values because the end goal is defunding all public goods. Attacking higher education not only scores short-term political points but also paves the road for delegitimizing all public institutions.”
PROTECT WOMEN & CHILDREN!
STATES THAT HAVE BANNED ABORTIONS HAVE INCREASED RATES OF MATERNAL & INFANT DEATHS!
STATES THAT HAVE BANNED ABORTIONS HAVE TAKEN NO STEPS TO PROVIDE FAMILY LEAVE OR IMPROVE PRE-NATAL CARE
Reproductive rights defenders on Friday cheered a pair of Kansas Supreme Court decisions reaffirming the right to abortion and striking down various restrictions—rulings expected to impact people beyond the Midwestern state, given how many patients must now travel for care.
"The state devoted much of its brief to inviting us to reverse our earlier ruling in this case that the Kansas Constitution protects a right to abortion. We decline the invitation," Justice Eric Rosen wrote in the decision against Senate Bill 95, which outlawed a common abortion procedure for second-trimester pregnancies called dilation and evacuation (D&E).
Rosen was referring to the court's 2019 ruling that "Section 1 of the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights affords protection of the right of personal autonomy," which "allows a woman to make her own decisions regarding her body, health, family formation, and family life—decisions that can include whether to continue a pregnancy."
The justice wrote Friday that "S.B. 95 does not further patient safety, it compromises patient safety," noting that "as the district court found and the state did not contest, S.B. 95 eliminates a safe and common medical procedure and leaves patients subject to procedures that are rarely used, are untested, and are sometimes more dangerous or impossible."
The court's other new ruling was about what critics call targeted restrictions on abortion providers (TRAP) policies. Both decisions were 5-1—with Justice Stegall Caleb dissenting and Justice K.J. Wall not participating—and followed Kansas voters rejecting a proposed anti-choice amendment to the state constitution in August 2022.
"Now the Kansas Supreme Court has decisively reaffirmed that the state constitution protects abortion as a fundamental right."
"Kansas voters made it loud and clear in 2022: The right to abortion must be protected. Now the Kansas Supreme Court has decisively reaffirmed that the state constitution protects abortion as a fundamental right," said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which was involved with both cases.
"This is an immense victory for the health, safety, and dignity of people in Kansas and the entire Midwestern region, where millions have been cut off from abortion access," Northup added. "We will continue our fight to ensure Kansans can access the essential healthcare they need in their home state."
The anti-choice ballot measure's failure two years ago came shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing supermajority reversedRoe v. Wade with Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization—which bolstered GOP efforts to further restrict reproductive rights at the state level, forcing patients to more frequently travel for abortion care.
Kansas allows abortion care up until 22 weeks of pregnancy and has seen an influx of healthcare refugees from states that have imposed bans. The Guttmacher Institute said last month that "in Kansas, clinic numbers increased by 50% (from four to six) between 2020 and 2023, and the number of abortions rose by 152% (an increase of 12,440)."
Despite the fresh wins in court, the broader battle for reproductive freedom continues in Kansas. As KMUWreported Friday:
Several new abortion laws took effect in Kansas earlier this week, but one of them—a law requiring doctors to ask patients getting abortions their reason for doing so—is being challenged in court. A Johnson County judge said Monday that doctors could add the law to a larger lawsuit they brought against a handful of older state abortion restrictions, including a 24-hour waiting period. The judge agreed to temporarily block the older laws while the case proceeds.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment told providers it will "not, for now" enforce the abortion reasons law, providers said Monday. The health department has not responded to requests seeking to confirm that.
It's time to STOP the LUNACY, LIES & DISINFORMATION!
Reduce the need by providing FREE FAMILY PLANNING & FREE BIRTH CONTROL! Address RAPE & INCEST as you should. Protect WOMEN & children, NOT religious zealots.
The Center for Reproductive Rights noted Friday that it "is currently representing abortion providers in another ongoing challenge to several onerous restrictions including a law forcing providers to falsely tell their patients that a medication abortion can be 'reversed,' an unproven claim not based on medicine or science."
One leading Democrat warned Republicans' spending proposals would "demolish public education" and "let corporate price gouging run rampant."
With much of the public's attention on the looming presidential election and high-stakes jockeying over who will take on Donald Trump in November, congressional Republicans in recent weeks have provided a stark look at their plans for federal spending should their party win back control of the presidency and the Senate.
The appropriations process for Fiscal Year 2025, which begins in October, is currently underway, with congressional committees engaging in government funding debates that are likely to continue beyond the November elections.
In keeping with their longstanding support for austerity for ordinary Americans, Republicans in the House and Senate have proposed steep cuts to a wide range of federal programs and agencies dealing with education, environmental protection, Social Security, election administration, national parks, nutrition assistance, antitrust enforcement, global health, and more—all while they pursue additional deficit-exploding tax giveaways for the rich.
"Some of the most concerning policy riders in the House Fiscal Year 2025 budget bills include mandates for new oil and gas leasing, prohibitions on the establishment of important protected areas for wildlife and natural ecosystems, and limitations that hinder federal agency ability to regulate polluters, putting water quality, air quality, and the climate at risk," the Surfrider Foundation noted in a statement earlier this week.
"Two of the key federal agencies that administer these programs are the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), yet the House budget bills call for a 20% funding cut to the EPA, and a 12% funding cut to NOAA," the group added.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, has been attempting to sound the alarm over the GOP's proposals, which she has warned would "demolish public education," endanger the health of women and children, gut mental health programs, "let corporate price gouging run rampant," and "expose children to dangerous products."
"I respectfully request that those on the other side of the aisle go back to the drawing board and come back with a new slate of workable subcommittee allocations across all 12 bills so that we can proceed with the important business of our 2025 appropriations work," DeLauro said during a markup hearing last month.
But Republican lawmakers have made clear that they are bent on pursuing steep cuts across the federal government, proposing spending levels well below the caps implemented by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, legislation that suspended the debt limit through January 1, 2025.
"House Republicans now intend to fund 2025 non-defense appropriations bills 6% below the 2024 level rather than provide the 1% increase" negotiated in 2023, noted David Reich, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Republicans in the Senate have also pushed for damaging cuts to non-military spending as the upper chamber prepares to hold markup hearings for its appropriations bills next week.
The Food Research & Action Center warned in a recent statement that legislation put forth by the top Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee would slash Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits by $30 billion over the next decade, jeopardizing critical food aid for tens of millions of people as hunger rises.
According to a May report by Feeding America, "the extra amount of money that people facing hunger said they need to have enough food" has "reached its highest point in the last 20 years."
Congressional Republicans' spending proposals for next fiscal year are in line with the draconian cuts pushed by Project 2025, a sweeping far-right agenda from which Trump—the presumptive GOP presidential nominee—is attempting to distance himself as horror grows over the initiative's vision for the country.
Project 2025's 922-page policy document calls for more punitive work requirements for SNAP recipients, massive cuts to Medicaid, the abolition of the Department of Education, the elimination of major clean energy programs, and the gutting of key Wall Street regulations.
"Despite Trump's claims to have 'nothing to do with' Project 2025, his administration and campaign personnel contributed to the project," The Intercept's Shawn Musgrave wrote Friday. "Former Trump administration officials wrote and edited massive chunks of the manifesto. One of its two primary editors, Paul Dans, who directs the Heritage Foundation's 2025 Presidential Transition Project, served as the White House liaison for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management during the Trump administration, among other positions."
"Rick Dearborn, who was briefly Trump's deputy chief of staff, wrote the White House chapter," Musgrave added. "Russ Vought, Trump's director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote the chapter on OMB and similar executive offices."
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