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Ohio Senate Bill 83 Will Cripple Higher Education in the State [1]

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Date: 2023-04-07

The April 2 Dayton Daily News published an extensive article about Ohio Senate Bill 83 which linked to the bill’s text. After reading it, I think the bill’s title, "Ohio Higher Education Enhancement Act" should be "The Ron DeSantis Memorial Bill to Mandate Right-Wing Orthodoxy Forever."

The Daily News’ Ray Marcano provided a summary of the bill’s “Orwelliian” provisions:

Universities couldn’t mandate diversity, equality and inclusion training, nor any affirmative action program.

It would prohibit universities from taking a position on any “controversial belief or policy,” including diversity, immigration policy, abortion or climate change.

It would mandate college readings such as the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, five essays from “The Federalist Papers” and Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail.”

It would prohibit any four-year state institution from entering into academic partnerships with Chinese counterparts.

It would prohibit strikes by any public employees; police, fire and correctional officers and teachers – would lose their right to strike for better wages and working conditions.

It contains a few contradictions: students could read Dr. King’s letter but couldn’t discuss it; read the Constitution but not talk about how the Ninth and 14thAmendments, “have taken center stage in the debate over abortion, a prohibited topic.” If no arrangements with Chinese organizations, why, Mr. Marcano asks, no prohibitions on deals with Russia, North Korea or Afghanistan?

And the bill’s sponsors think this will somehow encourage citizens to gravitate to these professions in the State?

The Bill’s sponsor, freshman Republican State Senator Jerry Cirino(R-Kirtland), published on his website a list of people and organizations who strongly support it, under the title, "What the Academic Experts are Saying about The Ohio Education Enhancement Act." It’s no surprise these so-called "experts" all hew to extreme right-wing beliefs. Five individuals or groups are included. We’ll cover three as examples.

The first is the National Association of Scholars. Wikipedia describes the NAS as,

. . an American non-profit politically conservative advocacy organization, with a particular interest in education . . . It opposes a perceived political correctness on college campuses and supports a return to mid-20th-century curricular and scholarship norms, and an increase in conservative representation in faculty.

Wikipedia also notes NAS has received funding from politically very conservative foundations, including the SarahScaife, JohnM. Olin, Lynde and Harry Bradley, CastleRock (Coors family) and Smith Richardson (the family that founded Vicks "Vapo-Rub").

Secondis Hal (Hadley) R. Arkes, “Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Ohio State University,” who, according the Ohio Capital Journal,

. . said that the liberal to conservative ratio is 88 to 3 in English, 75 to 9 in social sciences, 81 to 9 in humanities, and 81 to2 in political science, though he did not share his source for those ratios. Many opponents of Senate Bill 83 claim that it would diminish the willingness of potential faculty members to come to Ohio,” he said. “However the data show that the current situation certainly diminishes the ability of conservative faculty to come to Ohio, because they never would be offered a faculty position.”

My guess why he ". . . did not share his source for those ratios "is because he pulled them from his butt or some equally credible reference. Could these ratios be the result of conservatives’ general hostility to public education?

Arke is also is, according to its website, a Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute, an extremely right-wing think tank, and he’s mentioned there as Director of The James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights and the American Founding. The Wilson Institute, if I understand its Mission statement, promotes “originalism,” the legal philosophy that all law should be based not in context to present circumstances but only by divining the Founding Fathers’ intent in the Constitution.

There’s Michael Poliakoff who has quite the resumé: President of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA); founded/chaired a department at Hillsdale College. . . and much more.

Those first two cites are important. Wikipedia describes ACTA as,

. . a conservative non-profit organization whose stated mission is to “support liberal arts education, uphold high academic standards, safeguard the free exchange of ideas on campus, and ensure that the next generation receives a philosophically rich, high-quality college education at an affordable price. ACTA does so primarily, “. . . by calling on trustees to take on a more assertive governing role.” In other words, pay no attention to the teaching staff. Financial supporters, per Wikipedia include the Lynde and Harry Bradley and the JohnM. Olin foundations, noted above.

It’s wise to be wary of Hillsdale College, a small Michigan school with an outsized influence on US education. It is a leading proponent of charter schools, a favorite subject of Trump Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Hillsdale’s president, Larry P. Arnn made headlines when, as noted in the school’s Wikipedia entry,

“In2013, Arnn was criticized for remarks about ethnic minorities he made while testifying before the Michigan legislature against the Common Core curriculum standards. Expressing concern about government interference with educational institutions, he noted having received a letter from the state Department of Education early in his presidency that said his college "violated the standards for diversity." He added, "because we didn't have enough dark ones, I guess, is what they meant." After being criticized for calling minorities "dark ones," Arnn explained that he was referring to "dark faces." He stated: "The State of Michigan sent a group of people down to my campus . . . to look at the colors of people's faces and write down what they saw.

The record shows Hillsdale is no friend of any kind of publicly supported education, nor does it support any sort of diversity, equity or inclusion conversation.

The five so-called “experts” all are associated with right-wing organizations. As usual, the Republican sponsor of the bill fails to offer a “fair and balanced” case for it.

Some readers may be skeptical of Wikipedia, but any of the organizations which doesn’t like its listing is free to “correct” it. So far as I can see, none has.

Ohio Senate Bill 83 will not "Enhance Education." Rather, it's another effort by Republicans to force their will on Ohio's citizens and punish anyone who doesn't agree with them. Its passage will ensure many potential students for Ohio colleges and universities will go elsewhere and, quite probably, never return.

Given the gerrymandering of Legislature, the bill undoubtedly will pass and the Governor will sign it. If the law is challenged, the Republican majority on the State Supreme Court will uphold it.

I ask how long we Ohioans will put up with this one-party dictatorship?

Itis imperative those who oppose such coercive legislation make their voices heard to the Legislature. You can be certain I will.

Sources:

Websitesof National Association of Scholars, Claremont Institute,Case Western Reserve University, HillsdaleCollege

Wikipediaentries for National Association of Scholars, Claremont Institute,James Wilson Institute, American Council of Trustees and Alumni, TheFederalist Society, Hillsdale College

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/7/2162686/-Ohio-Senate-Bill-83-Will-Cripple-Higher-Education-in-the-State

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