The web site for the Committee for the Defense of Professional Rights of Philosophers can be found at the web site for The American Philosophical Association (the professional association for philosophers). This Committee has some very good information at a page dealing with the Academic Bill of Rights -- a page that can be found at this link. The Academic Bill of Rights, which is the invention of David Horowitz, may be coming to a state near you.
One should oppose this bill because although it looks good, it actually undermines academic freedom as we currently know it. Faculty and researchers should be self-governing, and their academic standards should be the basis for determining students' competence and what should be taught. The Academic Bill of Rights shifts responsibility for determining proper pedagogical standards away from the faculty and researchers to the administration or the courts. In other words, other criteria, like political criteria, not sound academic criteria, will determine what should be taught in schools and what will count as criteria for judging student competence. If you care about academic freedom, then you should oppose this bill if it ever appears in your state or in Congress.
