Requirements Optional

By: Joshua Seiden

Posted: 8/20/07

The folks in Jefferson City sure have our best interests in mind.

In an act reeking of sheer altruism (sarcasm intended), the Missouri State Legislature passed a law geared toward placing more legislators in teaching positions. A summary of Section 173.475 of Senate Bill 389 states: "A public college or university shall not reject an applicant for a faculty position based solely on the lack of a graduate degree if the applicant has an undergraduate degree and has served at least eight years in the General Assembly." This overrides any current institutional requirements.

Nowhere in the text of the full bill is it stated that the undergraduate degree must come from an accredited institution. Technically, a legislator toting a diploma obtained from a now-defunct online degree mill has the same shot at a teaching position as a Ph.D. from an Ivy League school. It's a bit disheartening for those who made the sacrifices necessary to successfully complete a rigorous graduate program.

Legislators backing the bill cite real-world experience as their selling point. The bill's primary champion, St. Louis-area legislator Sen. Tim Green, D-Spanish Lake, was quoted in a July Associated Press report as saying, "The books don't teach about the influence of special interests. They don't teach about campaign contributions."

Green is partially right. My college algebra book didn't have much to say about campaigns and elections, nor did the required reading for British Literature II.

However, one of my Political Science professors assigned "The Interest Group Connection: Electioneering, Lobbying, and Policymaking in Washington," a book whose title is fairly self-explanatory. This was just one component of the empirical literature we explored in the course. Were Green to visit Amazon.com and enter "special interests"+"campaign contributions" into the search window, he would likely discover that such books do indeed exist.

The importance of employing educators with relevant field experience is not lost on me, but the legislators who pushed this bill are downright disingenuous on multiple fronts.

If they believe they are truly qualified to serve as educators, why do they need a law to find employment? After all, politicians (usually) must be adept at promoting themselves to get elected in the first place.

In addition, if one does not value formal education enough to complete their own, does he/she have any business educating others? If they truly wish to school us on the intricacies of politics, our legislators should push for more intensive internship programs, providing students with firsthand field experience.

Regarding the value of formal education, let's not forget that when the legislature disagreed with the subject matter of a professor's research, they slashed funding to our university. College campuses are traditionally the most inclusive marketplaces for the exchange of ideas and also serve as essential forums for discourse on the most divisive issues of society. Those who attempt to meddle with these primary functions of higher learning institutions compromise the integrity of academic freedom.

In an era of skyrocketing tuition and textbook costs, we would be much better served by elected officials who spent less time securing post-office employment and more time working to make college affordable to those of us who value higher education.

jseiden@unews.com