The more Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick assails tenure and the teaching of critical race theory in higher education, the more he demonstrates the urgent need to ensure academic freedom and inquiry.
Beyond this, Patrick’s rhetorical broadside doesn’t just hit academia and college campuses, but takes a shot at the Texas economy and innovation.
Strip away tenure, amplify culture wars on campuses, and Patrick will drive leading academics to the private sector or other research universities, and with those departures will go their research and economic innovation. Why would top talent choose universities that cannot offer tenure and academic freedom when they can go elsewhere? The state’s business community, which benefits so much from the research at Texas universities, should be rapidly organizing in response to Patrick’s stated plans to clip academic freedom come 2023.
Patrick recently announced he wants to eliminate tenure for all new hires at state universities. As if that’s not enough, he also has called for introducing legislation next year that would designate teaching critical race theory as “good cause” for revoking tenure, and he has called for annual tenure reviews.
This was in response to a recent nonbinding resolution from the Faculty Council at the University of Texas at Austin that affirmed academic freedom, and specifically teaching about race and gender theory.
Critical race theory has existed for some 40 years and offers the view that racial discrimination is inherent in our political systems and social structures. Not that Patrick is interested in such nuances or such long-standing inequalities. He has made no good faith effort to understand critical race theory.
This is simply a political bludgeon to own the libs.
“We are not going to allow a handful of professors who do not represent the entire group to teach and indoctrinate students with critical race theory,” Patrick said.
And later in an article by Cayla Harris and Samantha Ketterer of Hearst’s Austin bureau:
“Go to a private school, let them raise their own funds to teach, but we’re not going to fund them,” Patrick said. “I’m not going to pay for that nonsense.”
Patrick was speaking of students, most of whom are unlikely to afford private school. But it’s remarkable, and sad, that he does not believe students at Texas universities can handle nuanced and challenging views about complicated topics. There’s a certain fragility to Patrick’s outlook that is discordant for an elected official with so much power.
It’s even more stunning that Patrick would not be thinking of the economic consequences of eliminating tenure. Clearly, top talent who might consider UT Austin, Texas A&M University, University of Texas at San Antonio or other state universities would likely opt for employment at schools that do offer tenure and in states that value academic freedom.
And that’s where the state’s economic engine collides with Patrick’s political rhetoric.
Tenure is not perfect — there should be greater emphasis given to teaching, for example, and greater accountability for underperforming professors. But it is a hallmark of academic life, and it offers academic freedom from outside industry and political influences.
It’s striking how Patrick antagonizes critical race theory at the very time Texas’ population is rapidly diversifying. Of the roughly 4 million new Texans last decade, about 3.8 million were minorities: Latinos, African Americans and Asian Americans. But this demographic change isn’t represented in Texas’ new legislative maps, and if Patrick has his way, critical race theory won’t be mentioned in college classrooms.
Freedom is a word Patrick often invokes, but not in its truest sense. It’s just a word he uses for his own political convenience.
San Antonio Express-News
