Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) introduced the EDUCATE Act, a bill that would eliminate federal funding to medical schools that embed the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) agenda into their admission or instruction policies, on Thursday.
Called the Embracing anti-Discrimination, Unbiased Curricula, and Advancing Truth in Education (EDUCATE) Act, the Senate bill corresponds with legislation that was recently introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC).
“Woke universities are forcing America’s future doctors to care more about race and gender than saving lives,” Kennedy asserted. “The EDUCATE Act would make sure taxpayer dollars don’t fund medical schools that discriminate against talented students or peddle progressive nonsense at the expense of science.”
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) is co-leading the legislation alongside Kennedy.
“The medical field has traditionally been one driven by core tenants of merit, academic excellence, and superb scientific achievement, but that has not stopped the left from their malpractice of injecting DEI into every aspect of education in America,” Schmitt noted. “To cheapen medical schools with woke politics and DEI would be to put the lives of countless Americans in danger as students of extraordinary achievement and meticulous discipline in the field will be cast aside in the name of social justice and equity.”
Medical schools would not be eligible to receive federal funding under the bill if they direct, compel, or incentivize students to adopt or affirm various beliefs associated with DEI and Critical Race Theory (CRT), including that the United States is structurally racist or that people can be lumped into “oppressed” and “oppressor” categories by virtue of their race, ethnicity, or sex.
