Florida bill would allow students to record professors to show political bias

[Diamond_Dog]

Republicans in Florida have stepped up their assault on what they call “Marxist professors and students” in the state’s public universities and colleges with a bill that encourages the reporting of lecturers perceived to be stifling “viewpoint diversity” on campus.

The bill, currently awaiting the signature of the Florida governor and Donald Trump ally Ron DeSantis, will allow students to make recordings of lectures without their professors’ consent, and present them as evidence of political bias.

It requires all 40 of Florida’s state-funded institutions of postsecondary education to conduct an annual survey of faculty and students to establish how well intellectual freedoms are protected on campus; and to “shield” students from efforts to limit their “access to, or observation of, ideas and opinions that they may find uncomfortable, unwelcome, disagreeable, or offensive.”

(snip)

The politicians who shaped the Florida law acknowledge there is no evidence that political bias is a problem in the state’s 12 public universities and 28 publicly-funded colleges, but argue that legislation is needed to find out if it exists.

(snip)

“I’m not surprised that Republicans are hobbling public education from kindergarten to college because they are afraid of educated voters,” the state representative Omari Hardy said.

“Republicans have done poorly in recent years with college-educated voters, which has fed their belief and fear that colleges have become indoctrination camps. They believe college students are these frail and fragile intellectual creatures but there’s no data showing that professors are indoctrinating their students.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/25/florida-bill-record-professors-universities

[global1]

1. And The Hitler Youth Turned In Their Parents....nt

[FarPoint]

6. Yeap.....

I just don't know how we are going to overcome this ongoing abuse....

[RKP5637]

2. Florida is getting creepier all the time with mini-Trump and his henchmen. n/t

[malaise]

3. Effin' crazy

It isn't biased if it is based on knowledge

[Deuxcents]

5. Yes, they did

My first thought was Republican Taliban..this needs to go to the courts. I thought the R’s were against big government n valued their civil rights. O...wait...”their” rights..got it

[samplegirl]

7. They seem to be covering all

their bases. This is just horrible.

[ck4829]

8. "anecdotal evidence of largely conservative students feeling very uncomfortable sharing their"

“We have a lot of anecdotal evidence of largely conservative students feeling very uncomfortable sharing their viewpoints in university classrooms, they’re getting shut down,” said the state congressman Alex Andrade, a co-sponsor of the bill.

I wonder which viewpoints exactly?

Because "Jewish Space Lasers causing fires", "Gay and transgender people are terrible because they are gay or transgender", "George Soros and a cabal of Communist Muslims are secretly running the world", and "doing cruel and stupid things should be done simply to own the libs"...

* Do not promote the betterment of humanity
* Are not backed with logic or facts
* Do not promote a healthy environment for learning
* And I hate this argument but I guess I'm going to use it... Other than being an anchor on OAN News or an admin on Breitbart, what kind of job prospects do you have if you're running around blaming everything you don't like on George Soros and the Jewis-er-GLOBALISTS?

[Baitball Blogger]

9. All the private schools they have in Florida to grow their evil Anglo agenda,

and it's still not enough. So, where do Liberal students send recordings of their right-wing teachers? The FBI?

[-misanthroptimist]

10. A fair number of my profs in the 70s were conservative to very conservative

That was especially true in economics. I was repeatedly told of the wonders of capitalism.

[ck4829]

13. In 2008, I had a sociology professor who just ranted against gay marriage in California one day

And he said something to the effect of it opening the floodgates and all the weirdos and deviants would be coming out of the woodwork now or something, I don't really remember.

What I do remember clear as a bell and has given me hope to this day...

Before anyone else could respond to that diatribe, there was a young Muslim woman in my class, clear she was, wearing a headscarf and usually very modest, she practically blurted out as she raised her hand that "If it's two adults who love each other and it's consensual, then it is something that GOD created, and we are sinning if we are against it."

Culture is changing, it's been changing for years, conservatives don't want to adapt in any way.

[tanyev]

11. Lemme guess, lemme guess, lemme guess--

Professors who show right wing political bias are protected by viewpoint diversity but professors who are accused of left wing bias need to be shut down.

[Passenger]

12. What about recording them for any old reason?

Is that OK too?

[Diamond_Dog]

14. I think Rep. Hardy nailed it

Saying that college kids are usually liberals and generally vote Democratic so Republicans say THIS MUST BE STOPPED! So, in their sick minds, it must be the public schools and those evil liberal teachers and professors indoctrinating young minds. Even though there’s absolutely no evidence of it, “We need to be allowed to investigate it anyway!” They can’t understand how their platform of hatred and lies doesn’t resonate with such a group.

And, by their criteria, even learning about Black History is “liberal indoctrination.”

I surely hope this goes to court and is struck down. This is unacceptable!