News Leader editorial: Brooker bill is waste of time

An editorial in today's Springfield News-Leader says the Emily Brooker Intellectual Diversity Act, named for the former Missouri State University student who sued the school after her social work professor required her and other students to write letters urging legislators to support gay adoption, is a waste of time.
According to the editorial, the bill, which is sponsored by Rep. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, and co-sponsored by Marilyn Ruestman, R-Jopln, "should die a quick death on the House floor. In fact, we suggest it shouldn't last any longer than the Emily Brooker controversy at Missouri State University lasted — about a week."

The editorial notes:

Cunningham's bill is purely an attempt to brand universities as bastions of liberalism and force them into unnecessary state-controlled remediation that might make a few legislators feel good but will do nothing to further the goals of better educating our young people.

The university already has a system in place to deal with this kind of situation, the editorial says. I might add that it seems strange for members of a political party which constantly decries unnecessary bureaucracy and government paperwork is supporting a bill which would add even more unnecessary paperwork.

Apparently, bureaucracy is all right if it enables you to kiss up to your political base.