UC discriminated against Christian schools

A Los Angeles federal judge has issued a tentative ruling to allow a Christian school in Riverside County and six of its students to proceed with a discrimination lawsuit against the University of California over its admissions policies.

In a case that has drawn national attention, the plaintiffs, including Calvary Chapel Christian School of Murrieta and a group representing 4,000 Christian schools nationwide, filed a suit last summer accusing UC of discriminating against them by setting admissions rules that violate their rights to freedom of speech and religion.

The case is being closely watched by Christian educators, free speech advocates and higher education officials who say it could affect admissions policies throughout the country. Specifically, the schools contend that UC is biased in its admissions standards against courses taught from a Christian viewpoint, while generally approving those from other religious and political perspectives.

The university has denied the charge, saying schools are free to teach whatever they wish but that UC must be able to reject high school courses that offer more religious than academic content or that do not meet its standards.

U.S. District Judge S. James Otero, in comments from the bench after a short hearing Tuesday, said he had tentatively decided to allow Calvary Christian and the other plaintiffs to pursue their claim against the public university system, according to lawyers for both sides.

The judge did not say when he would issue his final ruling, but the attorneys said they expected it within a few weeks.

Attorney Robert H. Tyler, who represents the Murrieta school, said Wednesday that his clients were pleased by the ruling. "The court has clearly indicated that substantial parts of our case, concerning viewpoint discrimination, free speech and equal protection, will go forward," Tyler said.

"It's a first hurdle for a plaintiff in any lawsuit," said Wendell R. Bird, an Atlanta attorney who represents the Assn. of Christian Schools International.

UC counsel Christopher M. Patti said the judge appeared to be leaning toward granting a UC motion to dismiss one claim in the case but appeared likely to allow most of the lawsuit to proceed. Patti said Otero also made note of the fact that other types of religious schools, including Jewish and Muslim schools, had not joined Calvary's suit.

The lawsuit charges that UC violated the students' and the school's rights by rejecting certain courses as not meeting the university's admissions standards. Last school year, for instance, UC said it would not give Calvary students admissions credit for an English class, Christianity and Morality in American Literature; a history course, Christianity's Influence in America; and a government class titled Special Providence: Christianity and the American Republic.

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One Australian State (New South Wales) has high education standards

The Federal Government wants to introduce an Australian certificate of education, to ensure a nationally consistent credential which, it claims, will raise standards of education across the country. To do so, it will identify common curriculum essentials from all the states, set common standards, administer common tests, and then allow work to be added by each state to reflect local needs and interests.

Why would we, in NSW, want this certificate? NSW has a rigorous, highly regarded curriculum. It's not perfect, but it is the best in the land: syllabuses which tell teachers what to teach, are creative and up to date, explicit in their definition of standards, specific in identifying content yet flexible enough to give teachers the ability to react to the needs of their classes.

The syllabuses cover the curriculum for every stage of schooling, from kindergarten to year 12. In some other states, the curriculum is written for only the last two years of schooling - when a public examination is to be held. There are other examples in which the curriculum is less than specific - even waffly and imprecise, where the curriculum does not set the same high standards for students as does the NSW curriculum. In other examples, the standards are manifestly lower than ours.

There is proof. In nearly every national test I have seen, NSW does better than other states. In the scholarship examination for year 7 run by the Australian Council for Educational Research, NSW students do better than their Victorian counterparts. For example, 1 per cent of NSW students this year gained a score of 205, whereas a mark of only 198 put Victorian students in that state's top 1 per cent.

Some years ago, when I taught mathematics, NSW always had one of the highest cut-offs for distinction certificates in the Australian Mathematics Competition. The cut-offs for each state are no longer published, because, it is claimed, they may be prone to misleading interpretation. My bet is that NSW continues to outdo the other states, and education chiefs are no longer prepared to say so.

That NSW does so well is no accident. NSW schoolchildren are among the best educated in the world and we should fight to protect that at all costs. If we are going to identify common curriculum elements around Australia, what are we going to get? A lowest common denominator. To ensure that all states feel they have some ownership of the curriculum and some stake in its establishment, it will need to include elements from these inferior syllabuses. NSW students will lose in this exercise.

More here

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"

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