photo by: Shawn Valverde/Special to the Journal-World

The University of Kansas campus is pictured in this aerial photo from September 2023.

TOPEKA — The Kansas House delivered preliminary approval Monday on legislation forbidding external postsecondary educational organizations from compelling a Kansas public and private college or university to violate state law in order to receive full accreditation.

The bill previously passed by the Kansas Senate was championed by two out-of-state, conservative organizations lobbying to convince states to move higher education away from certain ideologies, programs or expenditures. One area in which Senate Bill 78 could come into play would be if Kansas enforced a prohibition on programs tied to diversity, equity and inclusion that were traditionally a factor in college or university accreditation reviews.

“This bill would prohibit accrediting agencies or an association from compelling an institution to violate state law,” said Rep. Sherri Brantley, R-Hoisington.

If the bill revised by a House committee earned the minimum 63 votes for passage in the House, the new version would need to be affirmed by the Senate before forwarded to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. It passed the Senate on a vote of 32-8 in February.

The legislation would give colleges, universities, community colleges and municipal institutions until Dec. 31 to review and update accreditation policies and practices. Accreditation associations and agencies eligible to do reviews in Kansas would have to be selected from a list maintained by the U.S. Department of Education, which President Donald Trump has indicated he would seek to eliminate.

The bill would grant Kansas higher education institutions authority to file lawsuits against associations or organizations that took adverse actions against a postsecondary institution that sought to abide by state law — assuming the relevant Kansas statute wasn’t preempted by federal law.

Rep. Jerry Stogsdill, D-Prairie Village, said the legislation was unnecessary because the Kansas Board of Regents, which has control of state universities and oversight of community college and technical colleges, possessed authority to insist accreditation adhere to the law.

He said there had been discussion about bringing forward a separate bill that could render the accreditation legislation “egregious.” The Senate Ways and Means Committee proposed withholding $2 million from the Kansas Department of Administration and $2 million from the governor’s office until it was affirmed DEI programs had been eradicated from certain executive branch agencies.

Rep. Linda Featherston, D-Overland Park, said the House and Senate could potentially withhold state funding from colleges or universities declared noncompliant with Senate Bill 78.

“That would put colleges, universities, medical centers in danger of either accepting an accrediting body that isn’t recognized by others or losing their state funding,” she said. “I feel this bill is the slippery slope to seeing all our mental health programs in Kansas — to seeing our social worker programs — go without accreditation.”

— Tim Carpenter is a reporter with the Topeka-based news service Kansas Reflector.