There were two notable accomplishments of the Alabama Legislature in 2024: the Creating Hope and Opportunity for Our Students’ Education (CHOOSE) Act, which established school choice, and SB129, eliminating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs. Each measure took on an important interest group: the Alabama Education Association and the state’s universities.
Much work remains to preserve traditional American values in Alabama, but school choice is a true game changer. Empowering all parents will boost learning outcomes, increase economic opportunity, and minimize the potential for progressive indoctrination. A market in education will also benefit Alabama teachers.
On the surface, inclusion seems unobjectionable. But DEI is built on critical race theory and its collectivist, Marxist foundation. Critical theories see society permanently divided into oppressors and oppressed, while unequal outcomes are evidence of systemic racism.
The post-modernism behind critical theory rejects objective truth. In post-modernism, merit is viewed as an instrument of oppression, while the rules of math and grammar are arbitrarily designed to hold back blacks, something John McWhorter discusses in his book “Woke Racism.”
The passage of the school choice and DEI measures required disrupting the status quo and upsetting interest groups. While it’s true that offending important constituencies makes legislators’ lives less pleasant, the forces undermining America’s founding values and institutions are enormous, a fact Christopher Rufo describes in “America’s Cultural Revolution.” And because progressives hold the commanding heights in national affairs, states must lead in defending our foundational institutions.
The efforts of Republican attorneys general, including Alabama’s Steve Marshall, illustrate the heavy lifting required. Progressive federal bureaucrats have promulgated legally dubious rules on everything from student loan forgiveness to women’s sports. The Alabama Attorney General’s office currently has multiple lawyers litigating national issues, primarily suing the Biden administration.
Restoring federalism will protect traditional values. State leaders avoid the political cost of higher taxes by relying on the IRS. Yet grants to the states empower the federal bureaucracy, and providing about 10 cents of every dollar spent on public K-12 education lets Washington dictate policy to the states.
Conservatives should shift as much policy-making as possible back to the states. Yes, this will require Alabama legislators to raise state taxes, but federal taxes could be cut as programs return to the states.
Countering progressive control of major institutions will require some new policies. I will illustrate using my own industry, higher education. Universities, long dominated by liberals and progressives, birthed the ideas – critical race theory, modern monetary theory, decolonization, climate change catastrophism, and queer theory – shaping culture and public policy today. Academic freedom and faculty governance extends this domination across the university, impacting teaching and academic research.
The post-modernist rejection of objective truth necessarily redefines research. Universities hail their research as discovering knowledge to benefit humanity. But in a world without objective truth, “research” merely supports social control. Activist faculty now produce junk science promoting progressive causes, from climate change catastrophism to gender-affirming care.
This has occurred at universities across the U.S., even the public universities of red states, meaning conservatives’ tax dollars have supported the undermining of their own values.
The cost of decades of conservative neglect of higher education is enormous. Activist scholars now silence and censor academics daring to criticize their bogus scholarship. The public universities of red states should have supported scholars shredding shoddy research in support of progressive causes but have not.
How to create universities sustaining America’s founding values remains unclear. State bans on DEI are merely a start. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has taken innovative steps, notably appointing reformers like Rufo to the Board of Trustees of the New College. The new trustees hired a new president and closed the gender studies program. Yes, left-leaning faculty departed, but enrollment was also up this fall.
Once upon a time Alabama’s elected officials could just manage the business of government. Now states must lead in defending America’s values and institutions. We should salute the courage demonstrated in passing SB129 and the CHOOSE Act, but more tough battles loom on the horizon.
Daniel Sutter is the Charles G. Koch Professor of Economics with the Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy at Troy University and host of Econversations on TrojanVision. The opinions expressed in this column are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of Troy University or the policy or position of 1819 News.
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