Tweet

Renewing Limited Government: Tenure Limits

Guest post by: Michael Hume

Article Overview: Limit the factory of big-government liberalism that the American academic institution has become, and you'll go far toward restoring freedom, prosperity, and strength to America (and to the worldwide economy she leads). And the easiest first step toward a more sane academe would be to limit faculty tenure at all schools, colleges, and universities....

Renewing Limited Government: Tenure Limits

Break Up The Academic Cartel To Strengthen America There are at least ten limits on government (and on quasi-governmental institutions) that must be renewed to reflect the vision of America's Founders. In the experiment in self-government that is the United States, the people are supposed to run a limited government. A century of progressive statism has reversed that, with an ever-growing government seeking increasingly to limit the freedom (as well as the prosperity and strength) of the people. Until that "progress" is halted and reversed, America, along with the world economy, will continue to slide toward collectivist disaster.

The government should be limited in the amount of money it can borrow, tax from its own citizens, and spend. The number of years a person can "serve" in elected office, as well as the number of pages of legislation they can churn out, should also be limited. And the number of federal bureaucrats, as well as the number and length of the regulations they can impose on a citizenry that never elected them, should be limited, too. The runaway socialist state has made it harder and harder to run a business, create or realize an opportunity, or enjoy the everyday freedoms intended by our Constitution.

In the grey area of institutions that have become sycophantic with big government ("the semi-private sector," I'll call it), there should be new limits imposed as well. Limit the lawyers - reduce the huge amounts of money that go to prosecute and adjudicate frivolous "damage" suits, and millions of dollars will be freed up for productive enterprise. Limit the union bosses - put a lid on how much dues money can be forcibly collected and recycled into the political system to curry favor with liberal politicians, and more workers will be able to realize more and better opportunities.

Limit the factory of big-government liberalism that the American academic institution has become, and you'll go far toward restoring freedom, prosperity, and strength to America (and to the worldwide economy she leads). And the easiest first step toward a more sane academe would be to limit faculty tenure at all schools, colleges, and universities.

Teachers' unions and faculty societies have long argued that tenure - the practice of making a professor "bulletproof" and practically irremovable after a certain period (usually three years) - is necessary to protect "academic freedom." After all, if professors can be dismissed at any time, they'll be pressured to publish and teach only the "company line" a school board or board of regents wants to impose.

The effect of tenure, however, has been to impose precisely such a limit on academic freedom while handcuffing school boards and regents from effecting any real improvements in education. Believer or not, if I'm a new associate university professor, I will be inclined to toe the liberal line in the content I publish and teach, in order to attain the holy grail of tenure. Once tenured, you can't remove me with a crowbar, and I know it. So, like Ward Churchill at my beloved alma mater, I might get away with everything from dishonesty to plagiarism to blatant proselytizing for the religion of statism, all on the taxpayer's dime. And all for far too many years.

Some tenure is useful. What if you worked for three years to attain, say, a six-year tenure, during which you could pursue real research in complete freedom - and then "came off tenure" for another three-year trial? You'd be incentivized to publish and profess new knowledge that would have to stand the scrutiny of your customers - the students and citizens - at some intervals of your career. The sort of ivory-tower runaway indoctrination in which the Ward Churchills of the world indulge would not be eradicated... but it would be limited.

Limiting the amount of tuition that can be charged, and the amount of money that can be paid to faculty (and faculty unions) would also be a sharp step in the right direction. If a professorship ceased to mean an unassailable, lucrative, high-status life of privilege, perhaps our young minds would begin to be shaped more by people with a spirit of service TO others than of entitlement to service BY others.

Teachers and professors should be free to think, research, write, and profess any truth they want... but they should not be able to get rich (relative to the average population) by entrenching themselves in cushy, bulletproof jobs that don't serve their students. Along with lawyers and unions, academics have long functioned as a progressive stronghold and a quasi-governmental asset to the exploding centralized state. Time to limit that.

Related Articles
  Renewing Limited Government: Page Limits
  Renewing Limited Government: Debt Limits
  Why Small Government Is Better
  Renewing Limited Government II
  Renewing Limited Government: Currency Inflation
  Renewing Limited Government: Litigation
  Renewing Limited Government: Regulations
  Renewing Limited Government: Tax Limits
  Renewing Limited Government: Term Limits
  Renewing Limited Government: Spending Limits
  Renewing Limited Government: Bureaucracy
  Advice du Jour: Do Whatever Gets You Tenure
  What Are Your Limits?
  Renewing Limited Government
  Welcome to L.A.
  Government Releases Proposed Laws and Plan for National Employment Standards
  What are Your Limits?
  The Force of Oppression
  All You Need To Know About Canadian Government Small Business Loans – BIL Business Improvement Financing
  Tenure- Could It Possibly Be a Good Thing For Your Sales Force?

Article Tags: entrepreneurship, inspirational leadership, personal responsibility, wealth building



Related Forum Posts
Re: Can someone explain Search engine optimization to me? - Hi, Ask yourself, "What is the goal of a search engine like Google?" A search engine's goal is to provide the most related (or best) web page results when someone searches. Do you think people are searching for "Auction Cars Government" or "Government Car Auction." In fact type those keywords into Google with the quotation marks. You will find that Google gives different results for each keyword phrases. Granted you get many of the web pages ranking the same but there is a difference. My answer is, use "Government Car Auction" or even "Government Seized Car Auction" because that is what people are searching for. That is how the majority of the indexed pages use. That is what makes sense when you read the phrase. Jeff
Research & Development Tax Credits - If anyone is involved in any sort of R&D I have a contact that can submit an application for you to the Government of Canada to get back upto 80% of expenses you may have incurred. Best of all - all this at no cost to you. She's worked with companies of all sizes and part of her services, which are included is how to structure yourself in the future to continue to receive these Government Tax Credits. She can even go back to the last three years in your books to get Tax Credits refunds as well. Email me and I can share her details with you.
Re: Obama Wants Social Security for Illegals - [quote="Alan Mater":1q4mpk8g][quote:1q4mpk8g] This is what happens when the Government gets involved and puts its nose where it shouldn't. Let the market correct itself. There is no reason for the Government to bail everyone out. If the businesses, mainly banks, weren't corrupted with greed, this wouldn't have happened. They are and it did, so let them dwindle away and pay for their mistakes. That's what any small business has to do. Why should they be any different. They have gotten away with it for over 10 years! Surely they should have seen this coming. [/quote:1q4mpk8g][/quote:1q4mpk8g] The same thing happened in the early 30's that's why the law to prevent these practices was put in place. But, during the Clinton administration people decided that eliminating that law would boost the economy - once again, that didn't work. Kind of reminds you of the saying that people who don't consider history are bound to repeat it. Chris
Re: Obama Wants Social Security for Illegals - [quote="ChrisH":1v1r9kmu][quote="Alan Mater":1v1r9kmu][quote:1v1r9kmu] This is what happens when the Government gets involved and puts its nose where it shouldn't. Let the market correct itself. There is no reason for the Government to bail everyone out. If the businesses, mainly banks, weren't corrupted with greed, this wouldn't have happened. They are and it did, so let them dwindle away and pay for their mistakes. That's what any small business has to do. Why should they be any different. They have gotten away with it for over 10 years! Surely they should have seen this coming. [/quote:1v1r9kmu][/quote:1v1r9kmu] The same thing happened in the early 30's that's why the law to prevent these practices was put in place. But, during the Clinton administration people decided that eliminating that law would boost the economy - once again, that didn't work. Kind of reminds you of the saying that people who don't consider history are bound to repeat it. Chris[/quote:1v1r9kmu] I totally agree. Now we're paying for that mistake.
try the Government Grant Authority - Well friend, you can try the Government Grant Authority & If you would like to claim your share of free government grants then I will personally suggest you for this place. Few years ago I went there for help and I was really surprised to get it without any effort.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Why SEO is important for your online success

Five keys to business success

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.