The State of Texas in 2023 passed Senate Bill 17, which was then signed by Governor Greg Abbott, which bans universities from establishing DEI offices, hires, or requiring DEI training. But since then, the state's schools have found their ways to dodge around the law, still pushing their own agendas with almost no enforcement from the state.

But the University of Texas system is finally seeing some sort of light and taking a step in the right direction. The board has performed an internal review of the DEI situation across their system and found enough issue to require compliance training for their staff. This is not to comply with DEI either. This is to ensure they are not enforcing DEI.

Robert Montoya of Texas Scorecard says the review found over 13,000 mentions of DEI-related terms on their system websites.

"After this was discovered, they mandated that all Texas system employees, including student staff, to undergo regular compliance training," he says.

That means after years of pumping sunshine and DEI initiatives, the school is now reversing track and telling people to get in line. Which is much easier said than actually done.

It is a positive step in the right direction at least, especially with a more left-leaning school like the University of Texas. This is not the first step. The system has taken some action, getting rid of things like their multicultural engagement center.

But there is an Achilles Heel in the fight, so to speak. SB 17 stops short of the classroom.

"It does not apply to academic instruction, and we are still seeing a problem in what is being taught in these universities," he says. "We had a report on a UT-Austin course that prompted the LGBTQ agenda, and one of the textbooks appeared to encourage the sexualization of minors."

The review by the system schools of their websites is slated to be completed by the end of the year.

But this is just a baby step in the overarching goal of fixing a broken, 'agenda-fied' education system.

"While this is a very good move, a lot of work needs to still be done to truly reform our higher education," says Montoya.

KTRH Local Houston and Texas News