Lawmaker celebrates anti-DEI law; OEA says damage to come

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(The Center Square) – A year after a law in Ohio banning diversity, equity and inclusion at public colleges and universities took effect, one of its sponsors said the critics were wrong in their “wild predictions” about the legislation’s effects.

Critics thought public college education in Ohio would “fall flat on its face and literally explode,” with the passage of Senate Bill  1 in 2025, State Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, said at a news conference Wednesday.

“That turned out not to be true,” the senator said.

One of the predictions was that faculty and students would leave the Ohio college and university system in droves, producing a brain drain, Cirino said.

“Faculty retention has actually improved,” Cirino said. “We’re not seeing students leaving Ohio in droves. We still have 22 community colleges in the state of Ohio and they are actually doing very well. We are not seeing massive migration away from our student bodies in our community colleges.  We are doing better than the national average in enrollment.”

Ohio State University experienced a record class of first-year students, the senator said.

“The takeaway is that total enrollment has increased, not decreased, more students want to come to our public universities and community colleges are also sharing in that,” Cirino said.

There is also no evidence of a decline in minority students in the college and university system as a result of the bill, Cirino said.

National Rankings of colleges and universities in Ohio also have not suffered as a result of the bill, said Cirino.

“Ohio State, their total ranking is up eight points, from 49th to 41st,” he said. 

But the Ohio Education Association challenges Cirino’s view of the bill’s outcome.

“Sen. Cirino’s victory lap today is out of touch and premature,” the organization’s president, Jeff Wensing, told The Center Square in a statement. “Senate Bill 1 has already inflicted real harm on Ohio’s colleges and universities, slashing program offerings and learning opportunities for students, silencing Ohioans’ voices, and stripping faculty of their rights to have a meaningful say in the learning conditions of the students they serve.”

The true impact of the damage “is still unfolding and will continue to be felt for years to come,” said Wensing. “Celebrating before that damage is fully realized – or claiming success because the worst-case outcome has not yet occurred – is hardly an accomplishment worth recognizing.”