DeMora Condemns Passage of Senate Bill 83

Today, state Senator Bill DeMora (D-Columbus) issued the following statement after the Ohio Senate voted to pass Senate Bill 83, the highly controversial “Ohio Higher Education Enhancement Act.”

“Given how much my Republican colleagues talk about jobs and workforce development, you would think that they would actually want to convince young people to stay in Ohio,” said DeMora. “S.B. 83 will drive away young talent that our colleges and universities bring, as well as discourage professors and faculty from choosing to teach in Ohio.”

Among a litany of changes to Ohio’s higher education laws, S.B. 83 would prohibit all higher education employees from striking and ban institutions from having mandated diversity, equity and inclusion programs. It also would bar colleges and universities from endorsing or opposing as an institution any controversial beliefs, policies, specified concepts or specified ideologies.

More than 300 Ohioans and organizations, including the American Association of University Professors Ohio Conference and Ohio Education Association, submitted testimony in opposition to S.B. 83 while it was receiving hearings in the Senate Workforce and Higher Education Committee.

Critics have argued the legislation is an unnecessary infringement upon the principles of free speech and academic freedom that will discourage prospective students from attending colleges and universities in Ohio and professors from seeking employment at these institutions.

S.B. 83 now goes to the House for consideration, where its companion legislation, House Bill 151, received its second hearing today.