Good idea or bad?

From the Washington Post:

Ben Carson wants the government to monitor bias on college campuses. Can it?

Dr. Ben Carson, currently running in second for the Republican presidential nomination, told NBC’s Chuck Todd on Sunday that he supports a system under which the government would investigate allegations of “extreme bias” on college campuses.

“The way that works,” Carson explained, “is you invite the students at the universities to send in their complaints. And then you investigate.” He later added, “It’s not a violation of the 1st Amendment, because all I’m saying is taxpayer funding should not be used for propaganda. It shouldn’t be.”

Jeremy Kessler, associate professor of law at Columbia University, agrees that the proposal doesn’t necessarily run afoul of the 1st Amendment’s protection of free speech. “Public universities are more constrained by the 1st Amendment than private universities” due to their receiving public money, he notes. “Private institutions on the contrary have enormous leeway in regulating speech. The idea that speech in schools would be regulated is not terribly surprising. It goes on all the time.”