High Country Times

Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) today celebrated the U.S. House of Representatives' move to protect students from indoctrination on college campuses and return to a marketplace of ideas.

The House voted in favor of H.R. 3724, the End Woke Higher Education Act, a bill to ensure colleges and universities are not forced to meet diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) standards in order to be accredited and guarantee that the First Amendment is adhered to on public campuses.

Speaking in support of the legislation, Chairwoman Foxx outlined its common sense, nonpartisan nature: “This bill does not mandate any political viewpoint or ideology. It simply demands, from the accreditation process down to the classroom, that all levels of postsecondary education respect the free speech rights of students… The End Woke Higher Education Act will restore the essential freedoms that make our universities the global leaders of open debate and intellectual growth, ensuring that the next generation of Americans can think for themselves and engage in the pursuit of truth.”

The End Woke Higher Education Act is a compilation of two Republican-led bills: the Accreditation for College Excellence Act, sponsored by Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee Chairman Burgess Owens (R-UT), and the Respecting the First Amendment on Campus Act, sponsored by Rep. Brandon Williams (R-NY). Together they:

- Ensure accreditors’ standards do not require, encourage, or coerce an institution to support or oppose specific partisan or political beliefs or viewpoints on social or political issues or support disparate treatment of any individual or group;

- Prohibit accreditors from assessing an institution’s commitment to any ideology, belief, or viewpoint for purposes of receiving accreditation for Higher Education Act (HEA) funding;

- Protect a college’s religious mission and a religious accreditor’s ability to require adherence with religious practices or codes of conduct;

- Ensure that an accreditor cannot require, encourage, or coerce an institution to violate any right protected by the Constitution;

- Make free speech on campus a condition of receiving Title IV funds under HEA;

- Ensure students are educated on their First Amendment rights;

- Safeguard freedoms of association and religion on campus;

- Prohibit institutions from forcing students, faculty, or applicants to take political litmus tests; and

- Require all institutions to disclose annually First Amendment policies held by the institution.

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