Staff Editorial: Congress out of classrooms

On the second anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., introduced an amendment to Title VI of the Higher Education Act, intended to create a committee that would keep a closer watch over federally-funded international and foreign language studies programs. While the federal government should have the right to know how its funds are being used, Congress has no business dictating the content or curricula of academic courses to professors. If passed, the amendment would be a blow to academic freedom in American institutions of higher learning.

Title VI of the HEA--first authorized in 1965--provides federal funding for courses and programs specifically geared towards foreign language and area studies. The proposed amendment would create an International Advisory Board, composed of seven members, three appointed by the Secretary of Education and two each by the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate. A handful of vocal conservatives in Congress, along with outspoken Hoover Institute research fellow Stanley Kurtz, have argued that government oversight of the programs is necessary due to an increase in anti-American and international bias in the classrooms. This bias is reportedly most severe in programs focused on the Middle East.

While the amendment states the the committee will not have the power to dictate a course's curriculum, the committee will have the power to decide which programs will receive special subsidies to encourage their activities. This is simply an exercise in shrewd politics. Only those programs that get the subsidies will survive, thus giving the committee indirect power to dictate course content. Those courses judged to be unpatriotic simply won't receive enough funds. It would be more than a simple "advisory board."

The purpose of many of these programs is to train America's foreign service and intelligence officers of the future. The reality of the post-9/11 world is that anti-American sentiment is prevalent. American students need to be prepared to encounter such feelings, and there is no better place to start than in the safety of the classroom. Professors must be allowed to design their own curricula, and limiting their ability to do so may lead to more intrusive restrictions later. In general, ideas shared in the classroom should not be censored, even if they seem anti-American.