Legislators in Kansas advanced a bill Thursday prohibiting public universities from using diversity, equity, and inclusion ideology in hiring, admissions, and student aid.

The state House passed the bill 81-39, just one week after the Kansas Senate passed a $25 billion budget that includes a provision requiring state universities to eliminate their DEI training mandates and programs.

The schools would have to provide proof of compliance before receiving certain funding, and the state would withhold $35.7 million from its six public universities until they reported to the legislature and Gov. Laura Kelly (D-KS) that they have complied.

“As DEI has expanded, it has created tension,” Republican state Rep. Steven Howe, author of the House bill, said, according to the Kansas Reflector. “Instead of a merit-based approach, universities have chosen to embrace ideologies which discriminate against people that do not hew to their orthodoxy.”

Howe’s bill would block the Sunflower State’s public universities, community colleges, and technical schools from using the ideology in hiring, admissions, and student aid, as well as stop the schools from requiring staff and students to make an ideological pledge supporting DEI.

If a school violates the pledge requirement, it will face a $10,000 fine from the Kansas attorney general for each violation. That number was initially $100,000 but was reduced after disagreement when the bill was in committee.

Critics of the bill have said it does not define the parameters of DEI and is an affront to academic freedom and freedom of speech.

“It’s hard for me to pass a bill to punish a university for doing something that we don’t define,” Democratic state Rep. Tom Sawyer said, noting a DEI audit from the legislature had several different definitions of the ideology. “I don’t know how you could comply with that.”

Democratic Rep. Kirk Haskins also criticized the bill, saying, “It’s an overreach and it violates academic freedom.”

“Where’s the problem? Why don’t we trust educators?” Haskins added.

While Kelly, the state’s Democratic governor, has not indicated whether she would sign or veto the measure if the state legislature passes it, she did veto an anti-DEI budget provision last year.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

If the DEI bill does become law, Kansas would join multiple other states restricting the spread of the ideology at universities.

Most recently, Gov. Kay Ivey (R-AL) signed a law banning DEI at Alabama universities, public schools, and state agencies.