The” End Woke Higher Education Act,” which recently passed in the House with reasonable bipartisan support, is not expected to be taken into account by the Democratic-controlled Senate, but observers remain confident that it will ultimately succeed in passing some form of higher education reform in the coming lessons.
The House voted 213 to 201 to approve the Close Woke Higher Education Act in September. In favor of the bill, four Democrats cast ballots alongside their Democratic counterparts.
However, Adam Kissel, a professor of higher education, stated to The College Fix that he predicted that” this bill wo n’t pass through the Senate as long as Senator Schumer is running the Senate.”
However, he added that” there are a lot of pro-free speech Democrats, and it is n’t entirely outlandish to think the bill can be introduced the next time with enough Democrat support to pass in both houses.”
After November, things may look different for everyone in both the executive and legislative branches, and we’ll see which procedures you pass and which do n’t, according to Kissel, a visiting fellow for higher education transformation at the Heritage Foundation and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Higher Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education.
Rep. Burgess Owens, chair of the Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee, told The College Fix the policy is greatly needed, which is why he spearheaded it through the House.
” When accreditation bodies pressure universities to choose DEI initiatives, they narrow the scope of acceptable speech, study, and argument to the dogmatic views of the far left”, he said in an emailed statement. This creates a situation where both faculty and students are concerned about insulting the La group with conversation that might offend their opinions. I led the House’s passage of the End Woke Higher Education Act to reinvigorate our school system and reduce politicians from the approval process.
A combination of various pieces of legislation, the act has received praise from both the right-wing Heritage Foundation and the classically liberal Heterodox Academy on account of its efforts to protect institutions, instructors, students, activists, and student companies from a wide array of political test tests.
The Accreditation for College Excellence Act of 2024, the first section of the bill, aims to” [p]roduce political test testing in approval of institutions of higher knowledge.”
The Respecting the First Amendment on Campus Act, which prohibits political litmus tests in university admissions and job, is a minute part of the law.
It also mandates that recipients of Title IV funds, such as Pell grants and Stafford loans, disclose their policies regarding free speech and free association, ensures that all forms of activism are treated equally by protestors and student organizations, and makes a non-binding request for non-sectarian institutions to adhere to principles that” commit to freedom of speech and expression” ( a” commitment to freedom of speech and expression ).
Moving forward with this plan would be the first small step in the direction of accreditation reform, Kissel said. ” For many years, administrative accreditors have been the subject of electricity abuses,” said one observer of higher education.
He continued,” What this expenses does is advance a policy that we have advocated for that would stop accreditors from imposing La demands on organizations as a condition of their reputation by the Department of Education for federal student aid reasons.”
The balance between entire free speech and carry that goes beyond the limits of free expression is what makes this bill great, Kissel said.
Despite the positive changes the bill aims to pass in higher training, there is a general consensus that it will probably pass away in the Senate at the end of the present period.
” The Democrat-controlled Senate and Senate leadership are not going to take up a bill that’s called the ‘ End Woke Higher Education Act,'” said Kissel.
Heterodox Academy’s Joe Cohn agreed, saying in a conference that “titling it the Close Woke Higher Education Act itself made a political speech” and rendered it difficult for Democrats to help, regardless of whether they agree with the president’s information.
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” It’s hard, you know, as a Democrat, to add your name to that branding and framing of the issues”, he said.
Beyond branding and framing though, Kissel said,” Whatever the name was going to be…the left is down on free speech today”.
For instance, Kissel pointed out how John Kerry recently made the news for praising the First Amendment as a barrier to the flow of misinformation.
In the Heterodox Academy webinar, Cohn noted that some Democrats believe the First Amendment already provides the kinds of protections the bill offers, and that claims that free speech in higher education are greatly exaggerated, without going into detail about the motivations of individual senators.
He added, it could just be party politics in an election year.
However, neither Kissel nor Cohn think the proposed changes are entirely ineffective.
According to Kissel, the bill is an amalgamation of various bills proposed by various representatives, and some sections may be reintroduced separately depending on who is still in office and which pieces they favor.
Additionally, according to Cohn, the bill is not perfect. He described how, in a September article, he and the Heterodox Academy think Title IV fund eligibility and compliance may be overly aggressive and how consistent non-compliance could endanger the institution and result in many students being denied financial aid.
With additional time, Cohn argued, some of these perceived problems could be remedied.
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