• By Isabelle Philip • May 7, 2025 •
Georgians have been faced with legislation that threatens teaching truth and supporting diversity in our public education institutions. This legislative session was no different.
In line with federal attacks, Senate Bill 120 would create an expansive ban on diversity, equity and inclusion, affecting both K-12 schools and universities in Georgia. This bill threatens to pull funding from schools that do not remove a broad and vague array of practices falling under the diversity, equity and inclusion banner.
Just a couple of weeks before “Crossover Day,” the point by which bills must pass out of one chamber to continue through the legislative process, Laila Erold, a Dunwoody High School civic action cohort student, and Terrence Wilson, J.D., IDRA Regional Policy Director, presented powerful testimony against this legislation. They highlighted how passing legislation that undermines inclusion and diversity in our schools would be harmful for every Georgia student.
IDRA also signed on to a letter in opposition to SB 120 and participated in a news conference alongside legislators and other civil rights organizations.
SB 120 ended up “dying” on Crossover Day, meaning it wasn’t voted out of the Senate. However, the bill’s language was added to HB 127, a bill originally meant to expand teacher sick leave, to bring the issue back to life in a procedural move commonly called a “Zombie Bill.” (See our Instagram explainer on a few of this session’s Zombie Bills here.)
In the last weeks of the session, students, community members and advocates mobilized at the Capitol and in their hometowns to make their stance clear: any attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion is an attack on all of Georgia’s students.
Mikayla (far left) and four students from Georgia Tech Students for Belonging practicing speaking with a legislator about the diversity, equity, and inclusion ban
IDRA worked with students, partners and lawmakers to stall the bill. Mikayla Arciaga, M.A.Ed., IDRA’s Georgia Advocacy Director, spoke with Atlanta News First on the potential impacts of the ban in the last week of session.
The diversity, equity, and inclusion ban under HB 127 did not pass this legislative session, but it will be up for a vote in the House and eligible to be sent to the Governor’s Desk on the first day of session next year, so the fight is far from over.
As we continue our work with our advocacy partners, we celebrate our collective efforts to stop this expansive ban on diversity, equity and inclusion, which would set Georgia back and make schools less safe for all students.
Isabelle Philip is an IDRA Education Policy Fellow. Comments and questions may be directed to her via email at isabelle.philip@idra.org.
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