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UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religious Schools

By TChris, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Sat Aug 27, 2005 at 02:07:09 PM EST
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by TChris

The University of California sets admissions standards that require applicants to have completed high school courses in a broad range of core subjects, “including science, mathematics, history, literature and the arts.” To receive credit for taking a science class, a student must be taught course content that is generally accepted in the scientific community.

Some students from Christian schools haven’t satisfied those admissions standards because their instructional programs substituted faith for science. The Association of Christian Schools International and the Calvary Chapel Christian School have sued UC, claiming its admissions standards violate the civil rights of their Christian students.

Under a policy implemented with little fanfare a year ago, UC admissions authorities have refused to certify high school science courses that use textbooks challenging Darwin's theory of evolution, the suit says.
…

According to the lawsuit, UC's board of admissions also advised the school that it would not approve biology and science courses that relied primarily on textbooks published by Bob Jones University Press and A Beka Books, two Christian publishers.

…

"It appears that the UC system is attempting to secularize Christian schools and prevent them from teaching from a world Christian view," said Patrick H. Tyler, a lawyer with Advocates for Faith and Freedom, which is assisting the plaintiffs.

Not really. UC doesn’t prevent any school from teaching anything it chooses. It’s simply setting standards for a minimum knowledge base that a high school education should be expected to provide. It isn’t the task of UC professors to teach fundamental knowledge that students should pick up by the end of their high school careers.

That policy isn’t anti-Christian any more than it is anti-Buddhist or anti-Islamic. It is pro-knowledge.

“What we're doing is really for the benefit of the students,” [UC spokeswoman Ravi Poorsina] said. “These requirements were established after careful study by faculty and staff to ensure that students who come here are fully prepared with broad knowledge and the critical thinking skills necessary to succeed.”

Poorsina points out that inadequately educated students can take community college courses to fulfill the basic requirements needed for UC admission. Of course, a student is free to reject those lessons if they conflict with the students’ view of religion, but the student will at least be prepared to function academically in a public university. It isn’t discriminatory for UC to expect that of its applicants.

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    • UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religious Schools | 25 comments (25 topical)
    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#26)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Aug 31, 2005 at 08:04:50 AM EST
    "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights..." The writers of that document were idiots too, weren't they? Those who refuse to see the abundant evidence are already condemned. (paraphrase) This is not science vs religion. It is the science (evolution) of one religion (secular humanism) vs the science (Creationism) of another religion (Bibilcal worldview Christianity).

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#1)
    by Joe Bob on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:49 PM EST
    What a pity to have spent all that private-school tuition on a Godly education only to find oneself ineligible to attend a state school. Maybe Bob Jones, Orel Roberts, or Liberty University will offer these fools a tuition break.

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#2)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:49 PM EST
    Why would God-fearing Christians want to go to a hotbed of liberalism like UC anyway?

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#3)
    by roger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:50 PM EST
    UC rejects the willfully ignorant? Good for them, these people should go to seminary school if they want, but they are not educated people.

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#4)
    by jen on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:50 PM EST
    That was my question. Public High Schools arent nearly as bad as college, teaching independent thinking wise.

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:50 PM EST
    What do Christians need with higher education anyway? Aren't they supposed to be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, or handling snakes, wailing for Jebus to save them?

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#6)
    by Wile ECoyote on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:50 PM EST
    I wonder if UC would refuse to accept students from public high school that have not mastered basic math or read at a ninth grade level?

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#7)
    by soccerdad on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:50 PM EST
    I wonder if UC would refuse to accept students from public high school that have not mastered basic math or read at a ninth grade level?
    Yes they already do.

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#9)
    by cpinva on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:50 PM EST
    this is just another scam, by those same "scientists" that brought us "intelligent design". they have, however, already succeeded in their real goal: get as much free publicity as they can. i would hope this would be dismissed out of hand, but i feel certain they'll find some judge who's not real clear on the establishment clause.

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#10)
    by Al on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:50 PM EST
    Here's the blurb on a Grade 10 biology textbook from Bob Jones University Press:
    See science in modern life as your students study an introduction to cellular biology, genetics, taxonomy, microbiology, botany, zoology, and human anatomy. The biology materials uphold the sanctity and wonder of life as God has created it. These materials discuss Christian positions on eugenics, drugs, abortion, diseases, miracles, evolution, euthanasia, homosexuality, ecology, genetic engineering, AIDS, and animal rights.
    Ah, but do they discuss the Christian position on the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#11)
    by glanton on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:50 PM EST
    Or what about the Flying Spaghetti Monster's position on all these issues?

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#12)
    by Domino on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:50 PM EST
    At a summer school (grade ten) class that I helped teach about a decade ago, a student was transferring from a Catholic school to public school. She needed to retake several classes because they were not accepted by the school district. They were all basic classics, like history. She was a good student and had passed easily the classes in her Catholic school. So, this is no big deal. It happens all the time.

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:50 PM EST
    why didnt they just pray harder to the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#14)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:51 PM EST
    Fenria writes:
    What do Christians need with higher education anyway? Aren't they supposed to be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, or handling snakes, wailing for Jebus to save them?
    Not to mention being President of the United States. (duhhhhhhhhh) Jen wrote:
    That was my question. Public High Schools arent nearly as bad as college, teaching independent thinking wise.
    I rest my case.

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:51 PM EST
    Please, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is nothing more than a heresy cooked up by those that would deny the one true origin of life: The Universe was sneezed out of the nostril of the Great Green Arkleseizure. We should live in awe and fear of the coming of the great white hankerchief. (Thanks, Douglas Adams, Theologian Supreme). Religious zealots-opposing freethinking since we came down from the trees, possibly since we crawled out of the oceans.

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#16)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:51 PM EST
    Gee, I wonder which states have approved these Christian texts for their public high schools? Not a big list. Expecting UC to accept people taught out of unapproved texts is silly. Anyhow, UC, under the rightwing destruction of the economy, has become too expensive for Christians who tithe and give charity, living humbly on bread crusts and prayer. Since these people are interested in religion, why don't they simply apply to the non-science parts of the liberal arts college? They shouldn't let the name scare them away. After all, studying the TRIVIAL is an honored historical part of Christianity, something of which its followers used to be PROUD. Instead of death threats and superstition. "We find in a work from 1432-50 mention of the “arte trivialle,” an allusion to the three liberal arts that made up the " TRIVIUM [lit. meeting of three roads], the lower division of the seven liberal arts taught in medieval universities—grammar, rhetoric, and logic."

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#17)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:52 PM EST
    It's as if they don't support any state-wide standards at all. What does Bush and his NCLB folks think of this lawsuit? NCLB is all about passing specific standards, so maybe they're preparing a Discovery Institute written test in the aftermath of Bush's avowed support of including Intelligent Design in science classrooms?

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#18)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:52 PM EST
    Bob-Keep em in line with Intellegent Design is their refrain. Dumb and uneducated masses are the best thing a Fascist could hope for. Religion is the opiate of the Masses.

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#19)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:52 PM EST
    ppj wrote:
    Not to mention being President of the United States. (duhhhhhhhhh)
    Bush has an I.Q. of 98. I have an I.Q. of 135. I guess true intelligence has nothing to do with being President just as long as you can get down on your knees on cue and do the act well enough to please. And if you really think that Bush is a Christian, I have some land bridge property I'd love for you to take a gander at over in the Bering Straight.

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#20)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:53 PM EST
    "Dumb and uneducated masses are the best thing a Fascist could hope for. Religion is the opiate of the Masses." Religion is a lot more than than this display of religified ignorance that the rightwing has produced for its own purposes. It isn't proper to overgeneralize this particular set of rightwing Xtian ignorance-mongering to a general term like 'religion.' Religion is a vast topic, one that in many parts of the world has accompanied (and in many cases lead to) increases in knowledge, not ignorance, and increases in freedom, not bondage. It is BECAUSE religion is greater than these negative over-generalizations that MLK Jr. was able to become the modern social saint he did. It is BECAUSE Jimmy Carter is ACTUALLY a Christian (instead of Bush's self-deluded announcement of faith) that he created the Carter Center and all the other activities that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize.

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#21)
    by pigwiggle on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:53 PM EST
    “It isn’t discriminatory for UC to expect that of its applicants.”
    It is, as are all admissions criteria; the question is the validity. It seems to me that the aptitude for the kind of course work offered at UC might be a good place to discriminate.
    “I have an I.Q. of 135.”
    I have to call bull $hit; the odds are less than 0.9%, depending on your age and test. And anyway, anyone with the gall to posts their IQ on a blog is likely full of crap. … or maybe IQ would be a better criteria for UC entrance. Speaking of IQ, anyone catch the recent study out of the UK? Apparently there is, on average, a five-point disparity between men and women, biased at the high end.

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#22)
    by roger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:53 PM EST
    I personally get a 50 point spread depending on which IQ test I take. They seem pretty worthless to me, though I have never scored anywhere near as low as W.

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#23)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:54 PM EST
    High IQ is not the issue. The issue is adequacy of education in order to deal with the coursework. If the student arrives in his Biology 101 first year course and expects to discuss Jesus creating the universe, they are in for a big shock. If they wasted their time with that instead of learning the basics of meiosis in considerable detail, they are going to be adrift in a week, gasping for air. Admitting students who will fail is not in UC's interest.

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#24)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:54 PM EST
    PIL is right, it is not in the UC system's interest to admit students who will fail. While no one can predict with assurance who "will" and who "will not" fail in college, if the UC has found that past UC students who were educated in high school with these certain texts did fail at a statistically greater rate than those students who were not, then it sounds like they have a defensible case. Should be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

    Re: UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religiou (none / 0) (#25)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:55 PM EST
    The STATES already have that burden, as you well know, sarcastic. The standards for the UC depend on those STATE policies. Substandard texts are not approved. This case will last exactly fifteen minutes in front of any competent judge. And THEN the parents of these betrayed kids can SUE THEIR SCHOOLS for failing to prepare them properly for college admission. Leave no child behind -- except those LIED TO by their for-profit "Christian" schools.

    UC Sued For Rejecting Applicants From Religious Schools | 25 comments (25 topical)