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An Advisory Board drawn from Homeland Security will limit university funding.
by mal at 12:46 pm EST, Nov 10, 2003

It was just a matter of time ...

Homeland security wants to decide which college classes get funded and they are thinking of excluding classes that teach that there even might be dissenting points of view.

And please note that the committee will be appointed NOT elected.

Just what America needs! Less education! Less democracy!

(I have chopped the name of the originator of this document to protect him - but I am not trying to take credit for writing it - just for strongly supporting the sentiment embodied therein)

As many of you who know me well will soon realize, I have become a political activist for the first time in my life. I am not here to rant, but to inform you on current legislation that is being debated in the House of Representatives. The legislation in question, H.R. 3077, will rewrite the Title VI legislation that has provided FLAS money to many of us and that also funds the various area-studies centers in our universities. In particular, the legislation proposes the creation of an "advisory board" that may severely impact universities by dictating the curricula taught, course materials assigned in class, and the faculty who are hired in institutions that accept Title VI funding. It gets worse. The U.S. House of Representative's Subcommittee on Select Education Hearing on "International Programs in Higher Education and Questions about Bias" on June 19, 2003

http://edworkforce.house.gov/hearings/108th/sed/titlevi61903/wl61903.htm

begins with an opening statement by Representative Phil Gringrey that includes the following passage: "we are here today to learn more about a number of programs that are authorized and funded under Title VI, which are some of the oldest programs of support to higher education. These programs reflect the priority placed by the federal government on diplomacy, national security, and trade competitiveness. International studies and education have become an increasingly important and relevant topic of conversation and consideration in higher education... However, with mounting global tensions, some programs under the Higher Education Act that support foreign language and area studies centers have recently attracted national attention and concern due to the perception of their teachings and policies." Testimony provided by Dr. Stanley Kurtz (available from the link above) portrays areas studies centers as hotbeds of unpatriotic anti-Americanism. Dr. Kurtz focuses, in particular, on post-colonial theory and the work of Edward Said's Orientalism in which "Said equated professors who support American foreign policy with the 19th century European intellectuals who propped up racist colonial empires. The core premise of post-colonial theory is that it is immoral for a scholar to put his knowledge of foreign languages and cultures at the service of American power." (quoted from Kurtz's statement found at

http://edworkforce.house.gov/hearings/108th/sed/titlevi61903/ku... [ Read More (0.7k in body) ]

RE: An Advisory Board drawn from Homeland Security will limit university funding.
by Decius at 11:58 pm EST, Nov 11, 2003

mal wrote:
] It was just a matter of time ...
]
] Homeland security wants to decide which college classes get
] funded and they are thinking of excluding classes that teach
] that there even might be dissenting points of view.

I thought I would meme this because it was worth taking a look at. Its interesting. I'm not sure I know exactly what to think of it.

The purpose of federal funding for education is (among other things) to make sure that education conforms to what the public believes education ought to consist of. The idea that you can take public money and use it to tell people not to get jobs in the government because you are opposed to US policy is something that I disagree with. I think its hypocritical. It also crosses the line between exposing students to viewpoints and telling them what to think. I also disagree with school vouchers, for basically the same reasons. I don't want to fund your madrassah, regardless of what nook of the political system you come from. Feel free to teach your kids whatever garbage you want to teach them, and feel free to do it on your own dime.

Furthermore, I'm not convinced that an "advisory board" is really going to be in a position to do anything other then advise. What is wrong with getting a perspective from the intelligence community? I don't see how this equates with eliminating dissenting viewpoints from the educational system. There is a balance that must be maintained. We should expose people to ideas, but they should not have their minds made up for them.

On the other hand, I can certainly imagine this scenario being dangerous in the context where you really did have an intelligence advisory board deciding what things are true and not true. That would be the start of the end as far as I'm concerned. I find myself hard pressed to buy that this is what is going on here. I see the risk but not the reality.