Legislators should know better than to make offhanded comments in front of a room full of journalists - especially comments riddled with fallacies. But state House Speaker Rick Johnson apparently didn't get that memo.

Johnson went against better judgment at a roundtable discussion with the media late last month and made college students out to be hoodlums with no respect for their schools.

"The taxpayers of the state are paying a lot of good money to educate kids in these universities and by gosh, they ought to behave," the LeRoy Republican said at the forum. "I'm sick and tired of watching university kids tear university campuses apart every time their basketball team wins a tournament."

First, in addressing Johnson's ridiculous remarks, the most recent riot on March 27-28, 1999, mostly tore up the city, not the campus. Also, not all of the 10,000 people who flooded East Lansing's streets were enrolled at MSU.

And if our memory serves us, the Spartan basketball team lost to Duke in the Final Four game that ignited the fracas, as much as we would've liked to come out with the victory Johnson implied.

If you're going to shoot off at the mouth, at least have your facts straight.

But the greatest harm Johnson's commentary causes is opening up a chapter in MSU's history that, with the help of the police and fire departments, university officials and even we rapscallion students, has soundly been put behind us.

Since the spring 1999 riot took place last millennium, MSU's campus has seen an NCAA National Championship and another loss in the Final Four. If anything, the great heights our basketball program has reached brought the university together in celebration and camaraderie. Everyone saw the ramifications of the last melee - 132 arrested on riot-related charges, destruction of public property, numerous injuries - and learned from it.

In no way, shape or form should Johnson's newly implemented committee on higher education penalize university funding because of past wrongdoing. The committee, which Johnson initiated to better account for the $1.5 billion in taxes flowing to state schools, should instead concentrate on how the university recovered from and overcame this notorious situation.

But apparently Johnson still thinks it's worth focusing on.

"I think the money that we're spending to educate kids today - it's time the Legislature look at some of those things," Johnson said. "Universities are about education. That's what we ought to be doing."

We couldn't agree with you more, Mr. Speaker. And what we suggest for your future rants is taking a little more time to educate yourself. We take pride in our school and its ability to learn from its mistakes. Hopefully you're able to learn from this one.