The Fight For Academic Freedom Continues
March 28th, 2006 by Press Staff
David Horowitz, the author of the Academic Bill of Rights and a close friend of Congressman Kingston’s, wrote a must-read editorial in today’s FrontPage Magazine.
Regarding the Academic Bill of Rights he writes:
It is an attempt to restore the educational mandate of a democratic education: Students should be taught how to think, not what to think. Teachers should teach, not preach.
Regarding news that the Academic Bill of Rights will be brought to the floor of the House this week:
That is why the news this week is so remarkable. Despite the witch-hunt conducted by the education establishment and the political left � which is funded by the massive treasuries of the teacher unions — legislation for an Academic Bill of Rights is now being brought to the floor of Congress itself. This is the work of three congressmen, whose political courage under ferocious political fire should not go unnoticed by the American public: Representative Jack Kingston of Georgia, Representative Howard �Buck� McKeon of California, and House Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio.
The Academic Bill of Rights is, in fact, impeccably liberal, in the principled sense. None of its leftwing opponents have been able to identify a single smoking gun to justify their hysteria. They have not been able to present a single clause as evidence that the bill would restrict free speech, or target leftwing professors as such. The bill (in all its variations) is strictly viewpoint neutral. Strictly. But it is also a bill that would encourage �intellectual diversity� � and this strikes at the heart of all agendas to use educational classrooms for political indoctrination. In attacking the bill so savagely, the leftwing professoriate and their teacher union backers, are in effect conceding that this is exactly their intention. But they�re confident � over confident � because they can count on a complicit media, that is ready to cover for them and defame anyone who has the effrontery to stand in their way.
The entire article is a must-read for anyone concerned about this issue. You may find the reflections by David Horowitz on his meeting with Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) particularly interesting.
UPDATE: Majority Leader Boehner (R-Ohio) is blogging about this issue.