Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Ideologues at the lectern

The L.A.Times has a David Horowitz commentary on higher education and his campaign for an Academic Bill of Rights:
I began the campaign by trying to convince university trustees and administrators directly that a student's right to an intellectually honest, intellectually diverse education was in jeopardy because of professors — particularly from the left — who were determined to indoctrinate students with their own political opinions. But I turned to legislatures when I found the schools unwilling to listen.

Two years later, more than a dozen legislatures have considered "academic freedom" legislation, including Florida, Indiana, Maine, Missouri, Tennessee and other states. Universities in Colorado and Ohio have adopted new academic freedom rules (after we withdrew legislation that would have forced them to do so), and Pennsylvania has been holding academic freedom hearings as a result of our efforts.

In California, a bill to create an academic bill of rights didn't make it out of committee in the Legislature last year, but is to be reconsidered in the weeks ahead.
It would be nice to think that something can be done about bias in the classroom.The only answer to the complete elimination of public education.Then none of this would be an issue.