If you know me, you'll know that I'm not one to champion incumbents for the sake of incumbency. Nor am I one to champion what Lt. Governor of the state of Texas Dan Patrick does; no offense, Dan. We come down on different sides of different issues and I feel personally that some of what he does is more zealous than need be. However, I find myself mostly in agreement with what he and Governor Abbott are in the process of doing when it comes to college professor tenure. Check it out:
I love Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) and what they do. I subscribe to their emails and one that they sent out this morning had me clicking the link to read the articles on the issues they cited. One such article was about how Texas AND Florida (wtg DeSantis!) are attempting to put an end to college professor tenure to depoliticize the college classroom. Bravo. The reason I say that is because there is absolutely nothing wrong with a system of checks and balances. Plus, I don't love the fact that college students sometimes become indoctrinated while going to college. That's not entirely the professors' faults, but they will definitely take credit, I imagine, if one of their students leaves college in agreement with their liberal ideology.
Now, there's a difference between the legislation being introduced by Texas and Florida, and to be honest, I like the sound of Florida's bill a little better. Texas' version is a little bit heavy handed to say that Texas will flat out end tenure where Florida's bill puts them in a position to review teacher performances every five years, including tenured faculty.
"Under the bill, teachers will be evaluated along several metrics, including accomplishments and productivity, and performance metrics, evaluations, and ratings. The evaluations will also address recognition and compensation considerations, as well as improvement plans and consequences for underperformance."
“Florida’s students deserve a quality, affordable education and don’t need ideological activists and political organizations determining what they should learn,” DeSantis said in a statement. “By ushering in strong curriculum transparency requirements and providing accountability for tenured faculty, Florida is standing with students and parents across our state.”
Conversely, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick's bill as I mentioned before would eliminate tenured employees AND it would go a step further to fire any professor who taught Critical Race Theory. This has some with their hackles up about free speech and that the firing would infringe on first amendment rights.
"Free speech advocate Jeremy Young is concerned that initiatives like Patrick’s pose a serious threat to academia. Young, senior manager of free expression and education at PEN America, said in a February statement that Patrick’s plan represents a “mortal threat to academic freedom.”
“Patrick’s proposal is a craven attempt to score political points. It will create a climate of fear among teachers and students alike. It should be rejected,” Young said."
This sounds a bit like term limits for college professors, which I don't have a problem with. As I stated before, Florida's bill seems a bit better. Take a look at both and you decide. And, as always, if you like what you see, call and let your representative know that you want them to support the efforts made by the Lt. Governor and conversely, if you don't like it, tell them that, too.
