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Those dangerous professors

A new book called The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America, edited by David Horowitz, is now in a bookstore near you.

The book lists 101 higher education faculty that Horowitz claims should not be allowed to teach due to their political beliefs.

Horowitz has been the driving force in getting 24 state legislatures to consider his so-called "Academic Bill of Rights" (ABOR). No doubt ABOR will eventually rear its head in Montana.

This legislation would severely limit the free speech of college and university professors and subject them to possible career-ending sanctions.

A coalition of student, faculty, and civil liberty groups has formed to oppose Horowitz and this academic blacklist. It's called "Free Exchange on Campus." Both of MEA-MFT's national affiliates, the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers, are active members of the coalition.

Key points on this issue

  • Teaching in a college or university does not abrogate an individual's right to free speech as protected by the United States Constitution.

  • The college experience is supposed to be about the free exchange of ideas. A good college or university is supposed to have faculty with a wide range of viewpoints. It's not only okay but encouraged to challenge ideas and points of view as part of the learning process. ABOR severely limits the college experience and the value of a college education.

  • The rest of the world honors the very thing David Horowitz rails against. Students from all over the world attend colleges and universities in the U.S. to attain quality of education that comes from the free exchange of ideas.

  • Horowitz claims to be protecting the classroom, but most of his stories discuss activities that occur outside the classroom.

  • Horowitz has been forced to admit that much of his information is false. In a public hearing before Pennsylvania state lawmakers, he had to retract previous claims, such as a story about a Penn State professor who supposedly showed the film Fahrenheit 9/11 to a science class. Horowitz admitted the incident never happened.

Horowitz also has had to back away from a story about a student allegedly given a lower grade due to his views on abortion-another incident he now admits never happened.

Read more about Horowitz and the so-called Academic Bill of Rights at www.freeexchangeon campus.org/.