ATLANTA — State government officials have quietly removed guidelines for diversity, equity and inclusion instruction for state teachers. It was eliminated from a manual used by teachers, updated this spring.
The changes come from within the agency that certifies state teachers – which had embraced diversity equity and inclusion, until it didn’t.
Diversity, equity and inclusion -- or DEI -- was originally intended to extend official support to Georgians who aren’t straight white men. Then it became a Fox News villain.
This year, Republicans in the senate attacked it with a bill called the “End Political Litmus Tests in Education Act.”
But a previous session passed a divisive bill that outlawed teaching of what it called “divisive concepts," also targeting DEI.
Now a state agency has eliminated the phrase “diversity, equity and inclusion” from a manual for prospective teachers.
Mikayla Arciaga, a former math teacher who is now with the Intercultural Development Research Association, was among the educators who’d noticed that the DEI language had quietly disappeared.
"What's wrong with diversity, equity and inclusion?" 11Alive News asked state Sen. Greg Dolezal (R-Cumming) in February, after the "litmus test" bill was introduced. "It’s a litmus test to (subscribe) to the woke agenda in this – obviously part of the battle we’re facing in education all over the country," Dolezal told us.
Arciaga views the GOP’s battle against diversity, equity and inclusion in schools as misguided.
"That all gets wrapped up into, I think, this culture war scare tactics," she said. "We are losing the chance to make schools more welcoming for more kids."
Dolezal's SB 261 never got traction in the legislature this year – but it lives on for next year’s session.