Let's start with a reminder why tenure for college professors is important.

Tenure provides a vital layer of insulation between academics and the variables of fickle, intolerant society. Repeatedly in the last hundred years, academics have offered unpopular insights on history and contemporary events that have been stunningly vindicated -- often after years of persecution and blacklisting. That insulation is not intended to sanction the sort of academic dishonesty that Ward Churchill stands accused of, any more than those allegations reflect the problem Republicans really have with Ward Churchill. What Republicans really want: that is, to see Churchill fired because of his unpopular opinions, is precisely why protecting tenure is so important to a freely educated society.

And that protection is exactly what Rep. Keith King, (R-Colorado Springs) is trying to destroy with HB-1284.

Tenure bill passes committee

Tenured university professors could be fired more easily under a bill passed Thursday by the House Education Committee.

HB 1284 by Rep. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs, requires state colleges and universities to evaluate professors three years after they receive tenure and at least every five years thereafter.

Faculty members would be fired if they fail to live up to a performance plan established after a failing evaluation or if they fail two evaluations within 10 years...

The bill is not specifically tied to the controversy over Ward Churchill, the University of Colorado professor under internal investigation for allegedly falsifying research. But Churchill's was the only name that came up at a hearing.

Rep. Michael Merrifield, D-Manitou Springs, the committee chairman, told King that the investigation of Churchill shows that existing disciplinary processes are working.

King responded, "Is he not still employed? Is he not still teaching?"

Do you suppose that's because the investigation isn't finished? Oh, that's right, the "investigation" is irrelevant anyway because Ward Churchill is a traitor. Maybe Rep. King should have just said that -- and come clean with his true intentions.