Education · Statewide · TX · September 4, 2026
State curriculum laws pull down Plato text, DEI words from campus syllabi
EL PAÍS English reports that new state laws restricting classroom content on race, gender, and sexuality have led to professor resignations and syllabus changes at public universities. At Texas A&M University, philosophy professor Dr. Martin Peterson resigned after being told to remove Plato's Symposium — which discusses a 'third gender' — from his syllabus under Texas rules barring material on race or gender. At the University of North Florida, education professor John W. White was told to strip the words 'diversity,' 'equity,' 'inclusion,' and 'culture' from his syllabus to comply with state law. PEN America says nearly half of U.S. college students now attend school in states with at least one such restriction, with Texas and Florida the most sweeping. The Trump administration's Department of Education has separately pressured universities through compacts and letters covering definitions of sex, admissions, and 'free speech' compliance, and Florida has submitted a 30-page policy response detailing its restrictions.
Source: EL PAÍS English
Why Bible-Believing Christians Should Care
Conservative Christians may welcome the removal of ideological DEI and CRT content from public universities, but this story shows the risk in how these laws are written: a blanket ban on classroom material 'dealing with gender' pulled down Plato, a classical text, without regard to its academic purpose. That same broad, content-based government power over curriculum could just as easily be turned against a professor teaching the Bible's account of male and female, marriage, or sexual ethics if political winds shift. Christians should be cautious about cheering government control of speech in the classroom simply because it currently targets ideas they oppose — the precedent of state authority over what may be taught is a tool future legislatures could wield against biblical teaching itself.
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From the book
Schools operate under mandates for safety, inclusion, and critical thinking. Activists weaponize those terms under Rule 4. Redefine safety to mean protection from opposing ideas and the school must now exclude traditional Christian viewpoints in order to fulfill its own stated mandate.
— Chapter 19, “Capture in K-12”
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