Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed into law on Wednesday a ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public schools, making the state one of a few to enact broad measures against what she and other Republicans call a leftward tilt in U.S. education.
The bill, which passed Alabama’s Republican-led legislature on Tuesday, bans public schools from maintaining diversity, equity and inclusion offices or teaching what the bill calls “divisive concepts” about race and identity, such as that of holding people of one race responsible for actions committed by the same racial group in the past.
It also requires public institutions of higher education to designate bathrooms as only for males or females, a move that counters transgender rights advocates’ push for gender-neutral bathrooms.
Meanwhile Alabama makes 450 million a year off of “modern slavery” by punishing convicts if they don’t work for, in some cases, 2 dollars a day. At least bathroom users can rejoice that the person they can’t see in the stall next to them has state-approved genitalia. Also schools won’t have to worry about planning curriculum with nuance or historical accuracy.