Some state legislatures are trying to restrict what U.S. college professors can say, a move some people are also considering for lower rungs of education.
The Christian Science Monitor reported Monday that 14 state legislatures had measures that would affect instructors' speech and also give students who believe they are being subjected to political bias a grievance procedure.
While the attempts at the college level are the most obvious, the Monitor said activists are looking to take the measures to the next level.
"The last six months (have) been kind of watershed for the academic-freedom movement. It is going to filter itself down the K-12 level," Bradley Shipp, an official with the conservative Students for Academic Freedom told the Monitor.
One Massachusetts group -- Republicanvoices.org -- is asking K-12 students for examples of classroom political bias.
Patricia Sullivan, director of a think tank that advocates for public schools, warned such plans could make teachers' jobs tougher, especially in discussions of current events.
"A teacher could very easily in the course of normal conversation express views, and I just don't know how you regulate that," she told the Monitor.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
