Capitol bill aims to control ‘leftist’ profs
TALLAHASSEE — Republicans on the House Choice and Innovation Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to pass a bill that aims to stamp out “leftist totalitarianism” by “dictator professors” in the classrooms of Florida’s universities.
The Academic Freedom Bill of Rights, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, passed 8-to-2 despite strenuous objections from the only two Democrats on the committee.
While promoting the bill Tuesday, Baxley said a university education should be more than “one biased view by the professor, who as a dictator controls the classroom,” as part of “a misuse of their platform to indoctrinate the next generation with their own views.”
The bill sets a statewide standard that students cannot be punished for professing beliefs with which their professors disagree. Professors would also be advised to teach alternative “serious academic theories” that may disagree with their personal views.
According to a legislative staff analysis of the bill, the law would give students who think their beliefs are not being respected legal standing to sue professors and universities.
"Conservative academic critic David Horowitz has proposed state
laws to prevent discrimination against conservative political ideas
in the classroom (such as creationist alternatives to evolution), and
of course, there are some narrow-minded professors around, but
such a law would be hard to word, and no state has so far taken up
the challenge. But this week, a committee of the F State's House
of Representatives approved such a bill, which will likely pass the
full House. Not just creationists are protected, of course. A
student who believes, say, that the Holocaust didn't happen, or
who doesn't believe in germ theory or birth control, or who thinks
astrology is underregarded by astronomers (or even someone who
believes that men should not menstruate in order to live longer),
could actually sue a professor who the student felt was
disrespectful of the ideas." --link and 'brief' from Chuck Shepard at News of the Weird Pro