Last week, we made a quick endorsement to a proposal by State Auditor Shad White to strengthen Mississippi’s Open Meetings Act by rendering null and void any decision made in an illegal secret meeting.
That proposal was one of four that White is asking the state’s lawmakers to adopt when they convene next month.
A couple of his other recommendations deserve some comment as well. One we endorse, one we don’t.
The former is his call for a Whistleblower Reward Act. This would be modeled on federal laws to provide a financial incentive to those who come forward with information that leads to the recovery of misspent or stolen public funds. If the information is true and money is recovered, the whistleblower would receive a cut of it. How large a cut White didn’t specify but presumably large enough to justify the risk.
Mississippi’s laws already are supposed to protect a whistleblower’s identity, but a potential reward would provide a greater incentive to come forward. It’s worth a try.
It bears noting, however, that White’s proposal would only apply to civilians. Federal law makes government employees also eligible for whistleblower rewards, but the federal law is tricky in that government employees who learn about corruption or misspending don’t generally qualify for a reward if they obtained their information in the course of their job. White apparently wanted to avoid trying to deal with that distinction, but by doing so, he also would limit how often the whistleblower rewards would come into play. Those most likely to know when someone in a position of public trust is stealing are those who work for or with the thieves.
We are less enthusiastic, however, about White’s call for a study committee to change how the state funds universities. This proposal comes out of a controversial position he took earlier this year when he argued that the state’s taxpayers should not be supporting courses at public universities that he considers worthless. He gave a few examples: anthropology, sociology, women’s studies, African American studies and German language and literature. White suggested that those types of degrees should be defunded.
Not surprisingly, that recommendation — one of his occasional side trips into areas that have little to do with his day job — drew a heated reaction from those who have majored in these fields and those who teach in them. The critics said rightly that the courses a university offers should be left to the higher education professionals who run the schools and the College Board that oversees them.
Besides, rather than government meddling in academics, as White seems to advocate, the free market should fix the problem, if there is one. If students don’t find fulfillment, whether personally or financially, from a major, they will eventually stop choosing it, and it will die a natural death. Universities won’t keep funding programs with low enrollment.
