Help Save Missouri Colleges from the Queen

The good folks of Virginia just had a chance to see the Queen of England. Now it is time for the good folks of Missouri to send a message to the Queen of the Missouri House of Representatives.  Earlier this year you learned about Queen Jane's Wingnut-Welfare Affirmative Action Plan designed to bring "intellectual diversity" (read: cover for conservatives) to Missouri's colleges and universities.  Well dear Fired Up readers, let me tell you that as crazy as Rep. Cunningham's idea is, it is only a Senate vote away from going to the Governor's desk and making Missouri the first state of 27 to have considered this legislation and enact it. (Okay you wonky types, there was a substitute bill in the Senate so the House has to sign off on it again, but the Queen worked with the Senate committee, so that is nothing more than an easy hop, skip and a jump through a legislative hoop!) 

More details than you can imagine below, but the bottom line here is that we are asking everyone to take two minutes to call or email their Senators in Jefferson City and tell them to oppose HB 213 in any form. Okay, so on to the details.

We over at Free Exchange on Campus, a coalition of student, faculty and free speech advocacy groups have been following the progress of HB 213 just as we have been following all of these bills introduced around the country by right wingers like David Horowitz and Lynne Cheney's group the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA).

The bill, which purports to promote "intellectual diversity" but really represents an attempt to use the legislature to insert a conservative agenda into college classrooms, was first introduced in the House by Rep. Cunningham where it passed out of Committee despite testimony that questioned the need for the legislation.  To get to that point, the House had to manage some nifty shenanigans to avoid a fiscal note. Then they moved to the floor, where the bill's real intent got clarified when a clause protecting the view the "Bible was inerrant" got added in and the bill passed the House - apparently, "ID" stands for a little more than intellectual diversity.

This week, the bill landed in the Senate Education Committee, where it was altered, although not improved, and it passed there too.  All along, proponents of the legislation have argued they are protecting students while refusing to listen to what the majority of students were telling them.

The question now is whether or not the Senate leadership will allow this ideological piece of legislation to come to the floor and if they do, will there be a significant effort to oppose it?  If not, we can be pretty sure the Governor will sign the bill, since he is in cahoots with David Horowitz.

So again, we ask you to help out by calling or emailing your Senator and expressing your concern.  This bill will not protect "intellectual diversity" or "academic freedom," rather it will restrict the free exchange of ideas on campus.  What's more, it will send a message to the country that Missouri colleges and universities are not institutions open to inquiry and the search for knowledge, but rather are institutions driven by the ideological agendas of the likes of Rep. Cunningham, David Horowitz and ACTA.  Let's not let that happen.