MOHELA monster attacks lawmakers

by J Scott Christianson, Columbia Daily Tribune Columnist

The great MOHELA monster has finally emerged from its den in the Missouri Senate and has lumbered over to the House of Representatives. Soon it might be released into the wilds of Missouri’s higher education system.

For months this creature has been growing, mutating, and, dare I say it, evolving in the Senate. What started out as an idea to generate pork that could be handed out to higher education has turned into an ugly, slimy monstrosity that only a governor could love. This bill is no hellbender, but it is a bit of a mind-bender.

The Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority monster has several unique properties, including the ability to turn a four-term representative or a two-term senator into a tenure-track professor of political science at any one of Missouri’s colleges or universities.

Professors with real-world experience are valued in academia, but for some silly reason, they are also expected to be qualified to teach and conduct research in the academic field in which they are employed. Political science is a rigorous academic field of study focused on politics and government, with little if any emphasis on practical politics, i.e., how to get elected and how to get legislation passed.

Which retiring member of the General Assembly is really ready to teach “Linear Models in Politics” or “Quantitative Approaches in International Relations” in the fall? I’d bet Ed Robb could do it with…