BY JOHN K. WILSON The National Association of Scholars (NAS) has issued a tentative set of recommendation for amendments to the Higher Education Act. While claiming to offer “freedom from overregulation,” in reality the NAS proposals would impose the most restrictive, intrusive, and repressive regulations on higher education in American history. The vast number of…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Here are some excerpts from a scathing article in Roll Call on the Senate’s silencing of Elizabeth Warren. Written by Mary C. Curtis, the article is titled “GOP Seeks a Safe Space from the Words of Coretta Scott King,” highlighting the hypocrisy in the Far right’s absolute disdain for the creation…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Last week, I criticized a proposal by the Goldwater Institute for model legislation on the “Campus Free Speech Act,” pointing out the flaws of the model and the danger in allowing legislators to dictate campus policies. On February 9, Tennessee legislators introduced bills in the House and Senate SB1165/HB0739) based upon…
BY MARTIN KICH Each week The Hill distributes a newsletter called Sunday Show Wrap-Up. Ahead of this week’s shows, I think that it is instructive to review the headlines and summaries from last week, collectively gathered under the heading “Spotlight Shines on Trump Travel Ban.” Please skim the list, which sets up some extended commentary…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH We are getting used to seeing this sort of thing in states in which, largely because of gerrymandering, the GOP control of state government is all out of proportion to their actual share of voters. But, what is significant about this story, reported in the Daily Kos Elections: Voting Rights Roundup…
BY JOHN K. WILSON The Goldwater Institute, a right-wing think tank working along with National Review writer Stanley Kurtz, has issued a new report calling for model legislation to impose more free speech on campus with a model “Campus Free Speech Act” intended to be imposed on every public college by state legislatures. The biggest…
BY LAURA MARKWARDT Yesterday, Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s education secretary nominee, submitted written answers to questions from the Senate Education Committee. As in her hearing, she avoided substantially answering questions. Senator Patty Murray says that DeVos’s answers are lacking and has called for a postponement of today’s scheduled committee vote. Senator Al Franken confirmed last week…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Last week, I posted an item on the proposals to eliminate tenure in Iowa and Missouri. Hank Reichman subsequently posted the AAUP’s statement on those proposals. Those proposals were made by Republican members of the state legislatures. In the intervening week, the Republican governors of both states have proposed substantial cuts…
BY HANK REICHMAN This month saw what the AAUP quickly labeled “A Concerted Attack on Academic Freedom” in Iowa and Missouri, as well as a boneheaded bill introduced in Arizona that would have banned discussions of “social justice” at the state’s public colleges and universities. But after faculty members and higher ed leaders pushed back,…