Dive Brief:
- An Iowa Senate subcommittee on Monday blocked a bill that sought to limit diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at private colleges.
- Under HF 2488, private colleges with DEI offices would be ineligible for the Iowa Tuition Grant program. House lawmakers passed the legislation last month, largely along party lines.
- But in a 2-1 vote, a Senate education subcommittee declined to advance the bill, instead recommending indefinite postponement.
Dive Insight:
All three lawmakers on the subcommittee — Republican state Sens. Jeff Taylor and Mike Pike and Democratic state Sen. Herman Quirmbach — criticized the proposed legislation this week.
Pike, the subcommittee’s chair, said during Monday’s meeting that the bill would penalize students who rely on the Iowa Tuition Grant to access higher education.
As of 2025-26, full-time undergraduates from Iowa can receive up to $7,500 a year to attend a participating private nonprofit. If students remain eligible, they can renew the grant for up to four years.
Roughly 30 private colleges participate in the program, according to the state. Had the bill been enacted, institutions with DEI offices, such as Drake University and the highly selective Grinnell College, would have been forced to choose between shuttering them or losing access to Iowa Tuition Grant funds.
Many of Iowa’s private colleges are religiously affiliated, both Taylor and Quirmbach noted — but they pointed to that fact to make different arguments against the bill.
Quirmbach, who defended diversity efforts, said many religions include social justice work in their belief systems, and the bill’s broad, vague definition of DEI could be used to target those efforts. His concerns echoed those in public comments on the bill filed over the last week.
Meanwhile, Taylor said he supported restrictions on DEI work at public universities, but he argued the bill would inappropriately have the state micromanage private colleges and could represent a violation of religious freedom and freedom of speech.
He voted to move the bill forward, but said he would vote against it in the future. But Pike and Quirmbach declined to advance the legislation.
Iowa lawmakers are still considering a bevy of legislative proposals that would overhaul operations at Iowa’s public universities. One proposal would allow the Iowa Board of Regents to eliminate any required undergraduate course flagged as containing “diversity, equity, inclusion, and critical race theory-related content.” Another would allow the board to keep candidate names secret when selecting a new university president.
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