Sometimes the good people of Kansas and their knights in shining armor do things that “you just couldn’t make up.” The current illustration comes from the Kansas House of Representative’s Committee on Local Government – House Bill No. 2234.
Introduced by Rep. Virgil Peck, R-Tyro, the bill’s short title is, “An Act concerning postsecondary institutions; requiring adoption of policies and plans to prohibit employees from using their official title in certain publications.”
The bill directs the governing bodies of the state’s public community colleges, technical schools, colleges, and universities to adopt policies prohibiting any employee of those institutions from linking their personal names with their employer’s when the employee is expressing his/her opinion “in a newspaper opinion column only when the opinion of the employee concerns a person who currently holds any elected public office in this state, a person who is a candidate for any elected public office in this state or any matter pending before any legislative or public body in this state.”
On the one hand, my colleagues and I in the Insight Kansas writers group enjoy being recognized. The thought that our efforts have caught the attention of the state’s policymakers is an ego booster. It’s a joy to a writer to know one is being read and thought about even if the reader’s reaction is hostile to the writer’s point of view.
On the other hand, as citizens and taxpayers in the state of Kansas, we are surprised, given the fiscal crisis facing the state; the absence of good economic news; the lack of significant population growth and job opportunities; the perilous state of our most treasured natural resource, the Ogallala Aquifer; the unmet needs of the state’s medically underserved juvenile population; and the need to eliminate sexually suggestive classroom material and the teachers who might discuss it from the state’s K-12 classrooms, that the legislature has time and energy to take up yet another enormously important public policy matter like the use of professional credentials in newspaper column bylines.
The bill does permit employees to express their political opinions but without their professional connections. But, that still leaves a significant risk that the infection of criticism and analysis may spread to others. If we may be so bold, it seems almost mandatory that the supporters of this legislation must remedy basic shortcomings with the current bill with these amendments. Dismantle the information resources (libraries) of the employing institutions. Deny these schools the resources to subscribe to periodicals in print and on the Internet. A general bar on the discussion and spreading of information about public affairs and political actors within our public postsecondary schools seems to us to be absolutely essential, and critical to the governor’s cost-cutting efforts.
Perhaps the Legislature could also consider cutting down on the availability of material that attracts our review and criticism. Please continue the practice of “bundling” bills for more rapid, efficient passage. Do everything possible to make sure that as few recorded roll call votes are taken as can be managed. Choking off discussion via measures like HB2234 is only one avenue to improving the political climate in Kansas. Making the whole legislative process as murky as possible is a much needed additional improvement.
Clearly, in this time of so many pressing concerns and problems, knowing the professional affiliations of those who provide comment on policy and public figures is a threat to right-thinking Kansans. Dimming the lights so there is less for the public to see is an important and worthy added measure.
Dr. Mark Peterson, as a courtesy to his boss, stopped using the name of his employer, which is Washburn University, in his byline a couple of years ago because it was apparent that Dr. Farley had to take more grief than it was worth every spring when the Legislature meets for five months just a mile from the school’s front door.