| Tomorrow, the Texas Senate Higher Ed Committee will consider SCR 3, a resolution sponsored by Sen. Jeff Wentworth (R-San Antonio). The resolution is supposedly intended to encourage colleges and universities to protect "academic freedom." And while it is only a resolution and one in which the majority of the language is innocuous, no one should be fooled about what this resolution is about.
Across the country, anti-free speech activists such as David Horowitz and Lynne Cheney's American Council of Trustees and Alumni, are promoting a politically motivated campaign to attack higher education. They are trying to convince the public that there is a crisis of political bias in college classrooms--one that needs to be solved by stifling the free exchange of ideas which is so critical to higher education. They are using resolutions like SCR 3 to promote that campaign.
This year alone, there has been one type of legislation or another of this sort introduced in 11 states and over the last three years, there have been 28 states with such legislation. Hopefully, Texas will join the long list of states that have rejected such initiatives.
But what is so wrong with this little resolution. Here are just a few reasons. |
| First and foremost, for real learning to happen, higher education needs to include a free exchange of ideas. Despite the lofty language of SCR 3, it will not foster free and open debate but rather restrict that exchange. Why? Because at its core, it is sending the message that such debate is not currently promoted in Texas colleges and universities-hence the need for a legislative statement. This resolution is intended to be a "shot over the bow" letting colleges and their faculty know that Senator Wentworth and his colleagues are watching. That will surely lead to self-censoring rather than greater academic freedom.
Legislation should be forwarded to address a need or a problem. This resolution does neither. There is no evidence that a problem exists or that anyone (other than David Horowitz and FOX News) is calling for government intervention in this case. Oh sure, Senator Wentworth is predictably have a disgruntled faculty and student or two, but that does not constitute an evidentiary record. This resolution comes primarily from carpetbaggers outside of Texas rather than a concerned group of constituents.
Furthermore, there is no evidence that when problems with academic freedom arise in Texas colleges and universities that they are not being dealt with. One simply needs to do some minimal research to discover that institutions of higher education in Texas have policies in procedures already to protect faculty and student rights in these areas. But hey, maybe the Texas Senate doesn't have anything better to do than pass resolution calling on institutions to do something they already do.
Lastly, these initiatives are simply distractions from real issues that need addressing in higher education. Perhaps we ought to focus on issues such as helping more students and families afford college and be able to complete their studies without working a full-time job or taking on student loan debt that they will be paying off for years. Just look back at the agenda for this subcommittee meeting and you can see that there are many, many issues that are more important for this subcommittee to be dealing with-perhaps that is why it is the last item on the agenda?
The bottom line here is that this resolution is about ideology, not higher education. This resolution is about forwarding David Horowitz's campaign against higher education and if you want to see what that entails, just look at the kinds of things he writes about Texas. Never mind that half of what Horowitz says is inaccurate, every initiative, no matter how innocuous sounding, becomes part of his ideological spin machine-even if it is simply to charge that his opponents have conspired against him.
So this little resolution Sen. Wentworth would like to slip through while no one is watching is more trouble than it is worth. It will be followed by more attacks from Horowitz and Company, more attempts to expand the legislation to interfere even more in higher education, and more attempts to align Texas families against the very institutions that serve them so well. Let's hope Sen. Wentworth's colleagues decide to support Texas higher education and the students of Texas rather that let a bunch of carpet-bagging, right-wing ideologues mess with it.
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