Lt. Gov. Burt Jones drew criticism Thursday for his decision to question funding for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives on Georgia college campuses, with the state Senate’s leading Democrat calling it part of a contest to see which Republican can best mimic former President Donald Trump.
“This feud among Georgia Republicans over who is more conservative, who is more Trumpy, and who plans to run for higher office is not in the best interest of our students, educators or our educational institutions,” said Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler, D-Stone Mountain. “Our state budget and resources should not be weaponized for political gain.”
The Republican Jones questioned the programs after University System Chancellor Sonny Perdue slammed a $66 million spending cut the General Assembly approved for colleges in the upcoming fiscal year’s budget, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Wednesday.
Jones, the Senate’s president, could be a leading candidate for governor in 2026. Perdue is a former governor who promoted the political career of current Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and was his pick to head the University System.
In a letter to Perdue, Jones told the chancellor he wants the system to tell legislative leaders what its schools are spending on DEI programs and include information on staffing, the names and aims of the programs.
Such initiatives have been frequent targets of conservatives nationally, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — a likely Republican presidential hopeful — announced plans earlier this year to block his state’s colleges from having programs on diversity, equity and inclusion.
The University System said in a statement that it “is always responsive to the elected representatives of the people of Georgia” and has “already submitted those very questions to our institutions.”
In Jones’ letter to Perdue, he said a “series of disturbing events, including a public event at Stanford University at which a DEI administrator participated in the ‘shouting down’ of an invited campus speaker, have drawn new attention to the role of DEI programs and personnel on college campuses.”
In March, student protesters disrupted a speech by a conservative federal judge at Stanford Law School. The California school later said administrators failed to enforce free speech policies and announced an associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion was on leave.
Jones said: “These (DEI) programs are particularly concerning when taxpayer funds are used to enforce the type of intellectual and political conformity that appears to be the hallmark of many campus DEI initiatives.”
On Thursday, Butler responded: “Our students deserve an education that is inclusive because it reflects the world we live in. We’ve made many strides in advancing learning by ensuring students of all backgrounds have the opportunity to pursue higher education that will lead them to a good-paying job.
“Despite the rhetoric about diversity, equity and inclusion programs developing conformity, these programs do exactly the opposite.”
Rep. Tanya Miller, D-Atlanta, said, “I find it disturbing that Lt. Governor Jones is interjecting politics into the governance of our state’s public education system.”
Matthew Boedy, an associate professor at the University of North Georgia and president of the Georgia Conference of the American Association of University Professors, said diversity programs range from supporting students from different economic backgrounds to attracting more women to science majors to improving retention rates for Black men.
”The DEI budgets of these schools are very well spent and very effective at doing what they need to do, which is make our campuses reflect the society in which we live in,” Boedy said.
Boedy reviewed the University System’s more than 200-page response to a state lawmaker’s request last year for information about campus diversity efforts.
Colleges described programs such as a federally funded effort to enroll migrant and seasonal farmworkers and work to support students who are military veterans.
Schools also made the case for why the programs were important. The University of Georgia, in its response to the 2022 request, wrote that DEI efforts there “are defined broadly to include financial need, religious affiliation, accessibility challenges, being the first in one’s family to attend college, hailing from a rural area, or having served our country in the military, in addition to considerations of race, gender, sexual orientation, identity, and ethnicity.”
In that 2022 response, UGA wrote that its efforts to support a diverse student body are one reason why the university’s reputation is growing. ”We value each of these characteristics as contributing to the diversity and excellence of our community, and we purposefully support all of these students in their pursuit of higher education,” UGA wrote.
But state Rep. David Knight, R-Griffin, who asked for the information, wrote that diversity-related efforts “often result in inappropriate and/or misuse of state resources.”
Miller said Kemp understands the importance of the University System remaining “above the political fray.” She called Jones’ move “exhibit A for the case proving the poverty of imagination that exists among certain Republican leaders when it comes to advancing policies that actually help improve the lives of Georgia’s citizens.
“The only song they seem to know is one that harkens back to a Georgia and America with less diversity.”
