Don't tie educators' hands

Editorial by Greenville Daily Reflector, April 12, 2015.

Elected leaders often are so confident of their expertise, regardless of training, experience or intellect, that they have few qualms dictating policy and procedure to those in professions they really don’t understand. This often is true in education, especially where state legislators are concerned.

Our latest example of this foolishness is N.C. Senate Bill 593, filed by Sen. Tom McInnis, R-Rockingham, and Sen. Andrew C. Brock, R-Mocksville. This measure, is titled: “An act to improve the quality of instruction at the constituent institutions of the University of North Carolina.” Here’s how that would work:

Senate Bill 593 would require all professors in the UNC system to teach a minimum of eight courses each academic year. There you go. That was easy. Now, what other problems need solving? Our legislators stand ready to oblige.

In fairness to the senators, McInnis has said the bill has served as a conversation starter:

“I sent this out to get shock and awe, to get the conversation started. It has done that,” he was quoted in the Asheville Citizen-Times. “If these institutions of higher learning in North Carolina are gonna take the hard-earned cash money that the citizens have saved up to send their kids to institutions of higher learning, their expectations need to be met,” he said.

That’s fine, but then, is this bill a serious attempt to improve higher education in North Carolina or in the effort to “get shock and awe” are the senators simply guilty of political grandstanding and ultimately clouding real issues?

McInnis touches a real issue when he suggests students and parents in this state over a growing number of years have been paying a lot more for a college education — to the point of amassing serious and sometimes life-long debt — but without getting as much in return.

So how does the state and the university board of governors address that problem? Well, certainly not with the arbitrary and unvetted notion that all professors must teach four classes a semester, come hell and high water or have their pay docked.

This is a dumb idea on many levels, but suffice it to say that the more the state ties to an arbitrary notion the hands of professional educators – the people trained to wrestle with these problems – the more likely the state is just making everything worse for those debt-serving parents and their children.

Legislators: Create higher education policy if you must, but do it in concert with the professionals who live and work daily with these issues and could help improve the state university’s landscape — if you share the spotlight, just for a minute, and ask them.

http://www.reflector.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-don8217t-tie-educators8217-hands-2843701