Week in Review: Exposing Academic Rot 

Academic journals play a key role in higher education’s advancement of human knowledge—universities use them to judge the quality of their faculty, and researchers who get published are more likely to receive tenure and promotion. But a new Goldwater Institute report shows how that system is skewed—with devastating consequences—when ideologues take control and abandon merit-based scholarship in favor of radical agendas.

The report, Peer Review Gone Wild, explains how a group of activist professors dubbed the “Feminist Collective” hijacked the prominent American Political Science Review and used it as a tool in their woke crusade against alleged systemic oppression. The editors actively favored submissions steeped in an ideologically charged policy agenda and promised to institute race- and sex-based discrimination in order to provide an easier path to the peer-review process for women and “scholars of colour.”

As ideological agendas replace the pursuit of truth at leading academic journals, it’s clear that reform is needed. That’s why the Goldwater Institute is proposing the American Higher Education Restoration Act, a model policy aimed at restoring scholarly quality and quality teaching to public universities.

Read more here. 

Fighting for Open Government at the Rhode Island Supreme Court

Parents should have the right to look behind the curtain to see how school policies that affect their kids are shaped. So, when a Rhode Island school district refused to let a local mom attend meetings of its Black, Indigenous & People of Color (BIPOC) Advisory Board, the Goldwater Institute sued. On Tuesday, Goldwater attorneys appeared before the Rhode Island Supreme Court to again argue for open and transparent government.

Rhode Island’s Open Meetings Act states that every meeting of “all public bodies shall be open to the public.” That should certainly apply to the South Kingstown School Committee’s BIPOC Advisory Board, which was created by the district, funded by taxpayers, and entrusted with advising the committee on matters of profound public importance. But when local mom Nicole Solas asked to attend its meetings, the school committee said no. That’s not just wrong, it’s against the law.

Public business should not be conducted behind closed doors, which is why the Goldwater Institute will always fight for government transparency from coast to coast.

Read more here.

Exploring the Life and Mind of Benjamin Franklin, American Visionary 

Did you miss the Goldwater Institute’s recent webinar about the life and ideas of Benjamin Franklin, or do you wish you could watch it again? Well, you’re in luck—Goldwater has published a recording of the event for you to explore at your convenience.

In the webinar, the Goldwater Institute’s Timothy Sandefur sat down with Dr. Mark Skousen—economist, investment expert, historian, and eighth-generation Franklin descendent—to discuss The Greatest American, Skousen’s new book on the most prolific Founding Father. As Sandefur notes, Franklin was “America’s first self-made man,” a testament to his unmatched drive, creativity, and ambition.

The conversation will be enjoyed by history enthusiasts, students of liberty, and anyone who just wants a better understanding of the mind of a true American visionary.

You can grab a copy of The Greatest American here and watch the webinar here or below.