The discussion of legislation in Arizona by David and John has been very interesting. Erin O’Connor has further thoughts at ACTA Online, where she dubs the Arizona measure “not such a fine plan.”
More importantly, here is some news on a plan that is indeed fine. A different measure — based on the principles of ACTA’s report Intellectual Diversity: Time for Action and deeply sensitive to academic freedom — was just passed out of committee in Montana. This bill urges Montana’s state universities to file annual reports detailing the actions they have taken in pursuit of intellectual diversity and includes suggestions for actions they might take. It also requires annual hearings to investigate the state of intellectual diversity and an annual report by a House committee on the matter.
As the bill’s sponsor, Representative Roger Koopman, put it at Friday’s hearings, this bill is about sunlight. Fortunately, the House Education Committee agreed.