Opponent testimony is piling up against Ohio Senate Bill 113, and rightly so. The effort to “prohibit diversity, equity, and inclusion in public school,” was primarily sponsored by state Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, who introduced the measure last year but has since lost his Republican primary race.

“This bill is frustratingly vague about what does and doesn’t qualify as prohibited diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives,” Ohio Federation of Teachers President Melissa Cropper said during last week’s Ohio Senate Education Committee meeting, according to a report by the Ohio Capital Journal.

That’s the way with this sort of thing. Leave the door open to the widest interpretation possible to be sure there is a chilling effect against anything a certain brand of politician might find threatening. Make sure anything this bunch of extremists don’t want our children to learn about or be exposed to is vulnerable to being banned.

Research repeatedly shows this kind of exclusion is dangerous, and damages students.

“SB 113 would seemingly outlaw efforts to recruit and retain more Black teachers, even though the data shows that it is objectively a good thing for students when school districts make an effort to hire a diverse teaching staff,” Cropper said, according to the Capital Journal.

Though he, predictably, said he has not actually read the bill, state House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, decided anyway that it was appropriate to tell the Capital Journal, “I think most parents and most of the public think that’s ridiculous that you’re talking about that to a second grader or third grader.”

Absolute nonsense. Most parents understand it is important to help children learn about as much of the world they live in as possible, to encourage them to ask questions and learn to think for themselves — and the younger the better. Once a child is trained to believe every person’s experience is exactly like theirs, and that it is a bad thing to ask questions or explore new ideas, it is too late.

State Rep. Phil Robinson, D-Solon, was right to explain the reality of his interactions with parents — who, he says, are not coming in to testify against DEI efforts in public schools.

“They do come in to talk about how we need more resources to be able to pay our teachers,” he told the Capital Journal. “We need more resources for our textbooks and things of that nature. We don’t need to chase culture wars and salacious headlines.”

Sensible, responsible lawmakers will no doubt agree there is no need to pursue SB 113. Parents want MORE out of their kids’ education, not less.