Back in October, when Jodi and I were studying for the November special election here in California, I stumbled across an unchallenged rule in this state’s education code. Section 44932, subdivision a, paragraph 10 of the California Education Code states that one of the important grounds upon which a teacher can be removed from their position is “Knowing membership by the employee in the Communist Party” [TAOMPH171].
This was pretty scary. I haven’t had a chance to research the history of this particular rule, but I can image when it was made law. For a teacher at any level to be singled out in a major legal document because of a personal belief system flies in the face of what most people think about American rights. In fact, I would argue that those who complain that they are ridiculed for their belief in intelligent design should sit down and shut up. At least their jobs are safe – if they were in the public school system **and** communists, they’d really have something to worry about.
Given the bad taste that law left in my mouth, I was even more concerned when this morning I heard that a “Univ. of California alumni association is offering cash rewards in return for providing evidence that faculty at UCLA have been “espousing left-wing views in class, in violation of University of California rules” [CapitolWeekJan17]. First of all, I didn’t know it was a violation of any code to espouse any views in class. I’d really like to know what the code says, rather than seeing it through the spherical aberration of political double-speak. Second, where does this kind of attitude stop? Under those same rules, it might be possible to bounty hunt for religious views (such as non-Christian viewpoints) or scientific views (such as evolution).
The persecuting association, the Bruin Alumni Association (with no formal ties to the UC system), is described as follows:
The Association lists an advisory board of UCLA alumnae that includes Senator and current Congressional candidate Bill Morrow, R-San Diego, former Congressman Jim Rogan, and former California Republican Party head Shawn Steel. The group’s founder is Andrew Jones, a 2003 UCLA graduate who has worked as a research assistant to David Horowitz, the right-wing commentator closely identified with criticizing universities for being too liberal.
Talk about taint. Again, what’s to prevent a left-wing organization from offering money rewards for outing faculty who mention “God” during class? This sets a dangerous (illegal?) precedent.
Let me close with their offer. If this isn’t at least academic terrorism, I don’t know what is:
“Do you have a professor who just can’t stop talking about President Bush, about the war in Iraq, about the Republican Party, or any other ideological issue that has nothing to do with the class subject matter? It doesn’t matter whether this is a past class, or your class for this coming winter quarter. If you help UCLAProfs.com expose the professor, we’ll pay you for your work. Full, detailed lecture notes, all professor-distributed materials, and full tape recordings of every class session, for one class: $100.”
.. [TAOMPH171] http://steve.cooleysekula.net/blog/?p=727
.. [CapitolWeekJan17] “http://www.capitolweekly.net/news/article.html?article_id=434”:http://www.capitolweekly.net/news/article.html?article_id=434
