Burnt Orange Report

A few words about freedom

By Jim Dallas

First off, I have tremendous respect for teachers and professors. That said, I want to say a few words about how they do their jobs.

I hear through the Kos grapevine that up in Ohio they want to pass an Orwellianly-titled academic freedom bill of rights. It's a big bundle of "thou shalt nots" targetting college professors who allegedly inject irrelevant personal opinions into things.

I don't need to tell you that this is a horrendous idea. On the other hand, though, I think it's important that professors who teach get rewarded and professors that preach get penalized.

But how to do it without making a mockery of freedom? So, once again, I must present that old solution: merit pay. Specifically, Adam Smith's proposal. Seeing that "the greater part of the public
professors have, for these many years, given up altogether even
the pretence of teaching" in his own time, Smith suggested tying professor salaries to how many students that sign up for their lectures. And to insure that the students are "bribed" into signing up for easy courses, I propose institution-wide grading and attendance standards.

I'm sure that's a solution that these pro-market, pro-accountability Republicans can endorse, no?

P.S. I see those flaming lefties at the American Enterprise Institute already had the same idea.