University would have to give back state funding under proposal

State Rep. Beau LaFave, of Iron Mountain, recently offered a budget amendment to require Michigan State University to pay back all state funding if it changes the name of James Madison College within the next seven years.

Caving to mounting pressure from far-left activists on and off campus, MSU is currently considering changing the name of James Madison College. Madison was one of our country’s founding fathers and the fourth U.S. president.

“The school was named after James Madison because he is the father of the Constitution of the United States, the greatest legal document ever written,” said LaFave, whose alma mater is James Madison College. “The Constitution and Declaration of Independence was a promissory note to all people that they ought to be free and given equal rights. As a slave holder, James Madison clearly did not live up to his own ideals. But it is these foundational principles he envisioned and wrote down, unrealized but striven for generations, we celebrate; not the imperfect vessel that was the man.

“We have gotten to a point in society where a small segment of Americans only look to flaws but ignore progress we’ve made as Americans. Today’s moral standards differ drastically from what was commonplace and generally acceptable when our country was founded. In fact, it is unreasonable to hold historical figures of the past to the same moral code as today. If this is to be the new standard, no U.S. president except President Donald Trump can have a college named after them because Washington through Obama didn’t believe in gay marriage when elected.”

While the amendment did not garner enough support in the full House to become law, LaFave said the budget agreement was still worthy of support.

“Taxpayer-funded universities are supposed to uphold freedoms of expression and thought, not constrict them,” LaFave said. “Taxpayer dollars should not be wasted by public institutions to delete history and rename colleges over the emotions of a few sensitive students who would be better off going to school rather than rename it. Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it. Despite my strong opposition of James Madison College considering a name change, I will live to fight this battle another day.”

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