In a badly needed effort at shining light on what professors are doing in their classrooms, some states have adopted a policy that mandates disclosure of each professor’s syllabus. Taxpayers have every right to know what sort of teaching their money is supporting.

North Carolina is among those states. But as Professor Stephen Porter argues in today’s Martin Center article, it has left a gaping hole in its law.

Taxpayers deserve to know what is being taught at their public universities. Greater transparency strengthens public trust and reinforces institutional accountability. Under the new policy, faculty are required to include specific categories of information in their syllabi, and universities in turn must make those syllabi publicly available. This is not merely a suggestion of openness but a formal compliance obligation placed both on individual instructors and on the institutions that employ them.

Taxpayers deserve to know what is being taught at their public universities. Greater transparency strengthens public trust and reinforces institutional accountability. Under the new policy, faculty are required to include specific categories of information in their syllabi, and universities in turn must make those syllabi publicly available. This is not merely a suggestion of openness but a formal compliance obligation placed both on individual instructors and on the institutions that employ them.

While North Carolina’s intention is good, Porter points out a big problem: “But the policy’s central transparency mechanism contains a critical loophole. Syllabi must now include ‘a list of all course materials (physical and/or electronic) that students are required to purchase’ [emphasis added]. The limitation to materials students must buy is the policy’s fatal flaw.”

Professors can assign lots of highly politicized materials that don’t have to be purchased, so those who want to continue acting as “change agents” rather than objective educators will be able to do so.

Read the whole thing.

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