Senate Bill 1, the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act, was signed by Governor DeWine on 28 March 2025. It passed the Senate 21–11 and the House 59–34 and was sponsored by Senator Jerry Cirino.
The law bans DEI courses, training and required statements at Ohio’s public colleges, along with the spending behind them. For a family with a student on a public campus and for the taxpayers funding that campus, the practical questions are narrower than the debate was.
Start with what the law is not. It does not tell a professor what to believe and it does not hand the legislature a syllabus. Ohio’s universities remain governed by their boards.
What it does is move decisions that had been made inside administrative offices into daylight, where students, parents and trustees can see them. A required statement is a condition of employment or admission; the law removes it as one.
The harder question is what happens after a signature. A law of this kind is won twice: once in the chamber and again over the years of implementation that follow, in board meetings that draw no press.
CCV will keep tracking how the requirements are carried out campus by campus.
Written from CCV’s own record, the bill number, vote counts, dates and sponsors are verified against ccv.org. The wording is not CCV’s and needs their sign-off.
