Idaho legislators shouldn’t micromanage Boise State over critical race theory fears

Be prepared for yet another fight over higher education funding in Idaho and the paranoid hunt for critical race theory.

Idaho Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg, grilled Boise State University President Marlene Tromp on Tuesday over whether the university had cut any programs that had anything to do with what he termed “social justice” and “diversity, equity and inclusion,” calling them “wasteful spending.”

Last year, legislators approved a budget for higher education that included a reduction in the amount approved of $2.5 million “to remove state support for social justice programming at Boise State University, Idaho State University and University of Idaho.” That included a $1.5 million reduction in the funds to Boise State.

On Tuesday, Nate asked Tromp three times what the university had cut. Essentially, Tromp told him, nothing.

Good for her.

Nate and the other state legislators obsessed with fears of a Marxist takeover of the United States should keep their noses out of trying to micromanage how universities conduct their business.

Especially when it’s part of their witch hunt over critical race theory, which, even after a year of debate and a one-sided education indoctrination task force, they couldn’t even define.

Nate simply references “social justice” and “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs, a dramatic shift in scope for the search for “critical race theory.”

We understand the concerns over critical race theory, but the almost maniacal search for it has come to conflate it with necessary diversity and inclusion efforts. But efforts that simply help to attract and retain students of different races, backgrounds and experiences are not critical race theory.

Part of the reason colleges and universities focus on diversity and inclusion, in addition to the fact that it’s the right thing to do, is that businesses are demanding it.

One of the programs that Nate cited as offensive was the Blue Sky Institute, which is funded, in part, by Boise Cascade and KeyBank.

Leaders of major businesses in Idaho, including Micron, Kount, Cradlepoint, Clearwater Analytics and Albertsons, have come together to extol the importance and success of diversity and inclusion programs.

It’s not just because they’re “woke.” They want employees ready to come into diverse workplaces and they want Idaho’s institutions of higher education to graduate future employees who have different backgrounds and experiences.

“Our companies know that antidiscrimination and inclusion policies are good for business,” several CEOs wrote in a guest opinion to the Idaho Statesman last year. “When you know that your talents matter and your individual needs are cared for by your colleagues and company leaders, you bring your best self to work — driving innovation, promoting collaboration and increasing company revenues.”

Nate, who is an economics professor at BYU-Idaho, cited a laundry list of programs in Boise State’s budget that he said “include what are arguably social justice principles.”

What constitutes a social justice program? Isn’t Boise State’s Veterans Services Center, which seeks to help veterans attend Boise State and successfully graduate, a form of social justice? Isn’t the Community Impact Program, which reaches out to students living in rural Idaho, a social justice program?

As a clear indication of the dangers of state legislators putting their fingers in the pie of choosing what is and what isn’t acceptable in higher education, Nate also cited Boise State Public Radio and the Center for Learning and Teaching, which helps professors and instructors improve their teaching, as social justice programs.

What about this course? “ED 312 - Culture and Diversity in Education is designed to help you reach a certain level of cultural sensitivity.

“In this course you will consider individual and circumstantial responsiveness to differences that exist in language, race, ethnicity, gender, class, age, ability and religion. … This class will analyze historic and present day relationships between American educational systems and existing cultural dynamics. You will be encouraged to identify biases and discriminatory practices along with their possible causes and influences on the education process.”

Sounds like it might be social justice.

Where can you find that course? BYU-Idaho, where Nate teaches.

We know that legislators like Nate are going to argue on the House floor that Boise State’s funding should be cut over diversity, equity and inclusion programs. We expect it of them. But we expect more reasonable legislators, such as Reps. Megan Blanksma, John Vander Woude, Matthew Bundy, Greg Chaney, Ron Furniss, Julie Yamamoto, Rick Youngblood and Laurie Lickley, to not fall for the scare tactics.

Legislators this year should avoid micromanaging the budgets of Boise State and other universities, especially over bogeyman fears about programs that are not critical race theory.