The following op-ed is written by State Rep. Kim Banta (R-Ft. Mitchell)
On the 50th Anniversary of Title IX, President Biden announced new regulations that would irreconcilably damage basic due process and free speech protections for college students throughout the country. Not only is his administration transforming Title IX into a weapon against our Constitution, but it is also turning college campuses into an environment against our core American values.
The right to a live hearing, cross-examination, and the standard of being innocent until proven guilty will be no more. A college student’s ability to speak freely about their sincerely held beliefs will be undermined by campus thought police. While President Biden trots out callous policies deemed to fail students by courts across the nation, Kentucky’s House Majority Caucus stood up to protect these fundamental rights. One person should not determine a person’s fate.
In 2019, our legislature enacted one of the largest bills in the country protecting the free speech and expression rights of students, the Kentucky Campus Free Speech Protection Act. The act provides broad protections to students across the Commonwealth who wish to think, speak, express, and believe their faith openly and freely. In 2022, I became a primary cosponsor of a bill to strengthen this law and further protect the First Amendment rights of our students.
Statehouse Republicans took another step in standing up for student rights. Championed by myself and Representative Kimberly Moser, the Kentucky General Assembly passed the largest student rights protection bill in the United States this year. The Kentucky Campus Due Process Protection Act is a striking contrast to what is being proposed by the President, as our law guarantees the right to a live hearing, the right to cross-examination, the right to have representation—in sum, the right to due process for all parties involved
The Constitution does not stop at the campus gates. This is true even against the wishes of ideological activists in the classrooms. By rolling back rights for students nationwide, the administration is abandoning core American principles. We cannot allow our students and campuses to be bullied back into failed policies of the past.
As a school principal, I am accustomed to dealing with bullies and standing up to them to protect our children. In Kentucky, we stand up to bullies like the Biden Administration, and we stand up to fight for our Constitution. I promise to continue to stand up to those who seek to attack the values we share as Americans and Kentuckians.