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The Fraud of "Academic Freedom"

By Gordon Francis Corbett

Occasionally, we hear some teacher protest a restriction of his prerogatives by saying that he has "academic freedom."  

"Academic freedom" is a fraud.  Passed in the name of scholastic integrity, it supposedly permits a teacher to teach autonomously.  Actually, it is not intended to protect conservative, libertarian, or paedagogically traditionalist instructors from bosses who oppose their ideas.  Instead, its purpose is to placate teachers' labor unions by protecting "progressive" instructors from an angry public.  Case in point:  Aurora, Colorado's, Cherry Creek School District.  Some months ago, one of its teachers, a Mr. Jay Bennish, made some terribly untrue statements about President Bush that triggered an enormous furor.  

I am a very firm advocate of the entire Bill of Rights, and especially of its First Amendment;  but the First Amendment says, "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech...."  It does not forbid employers' controlling employees on their worksites.  

Suppose that I am teaching high-school civics.  I tell my classes that two private groups, the Council on Foreign Relations and The Trilateral Commission, dominate our government.  I state that they represent practically every important American corporation dealing in finance, merchandising, manufacturing, and communications.  I declare that they include leading philanthropic foundations and important members of Congress.  I assert that since their respective foundings, starting with the tenure of Franklin D. Roosevelt, these organizations have been supplying presidential cabinet members.  And, finally, I say that every important Federal policy can be traced to these organizations.  Currently they are working to abolish our nation by amalgamating it into a "North American Union" with Canada and Mexico.  

None of these points is anti-American.  I can substantiate them all.  Every one is true. 

Nevertheless, the issue is not truth, but employers' freedom.  If my school's governors--a school-board, a Board of Regents, or a corporate board of directors--love today's "politically correct" orthodoxy, and so forbid their instructors' teaching "propaganda" of the sort I describe above, they have the unqualified economic power to discharge me for disobedience.  In employment, he who has the gold really does make the rules.

Now we return to Mr. Jay Bennish.  He was not fired.  He was not suspended without pay.  He was placed on "paid administrative leave."  In fact, Dr. Monte C. Moses, the Cherry Creek School District's superintendent, retained him.

Want to guess Dr. Moses' paedagogy and politics?  Want to guess how much Dr. Moses might respect the "academic freedom" of a technically competent instructor whose paedagogy and subject-matter content disagree with Dr. Moses' ideas?  And, finally, would you like to guess what sorts of bureaucratic nonsense would result from forbidding Dr. Moses' setting and enforcing policy?

The true solution lies not in handcuffing Dr. Moses, but in giving him competition.  Private enterprise empowers patrons.  A new private school whose fees, methods, and subject-matter content are attractive would shrink Dr. Moses' district as if it were a Hong Kong sock.

Competition:  how best to achieve "Truth, Justice, and the American Way"!

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