Posted on 11/19/2005 11:37:00 PM PST by nickcarraway
Cody Young is an evangelical Christian who attends a religious high school in Southern California. With stellar grades, competitive test scores and an impressive list of extracurricular activities, Mr. Young has mapped a future that includes studying engineering at the University of California and a career in the aerospace industry, his lawyers have said.
But Mr. Young, his teachers and his family fear his beliefs may hurt his chance to attend the university. They say the public university system, which has 10 campuses, discriminates against students from evangelical Christian schools, especially faith-based ones like Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta, where Mr. Young is a senior.
Mr. Young, five other Calvary students, the school and the Association of Christian Schools International, which represents 4,000 religious schools, sued the University of California in the summer, accusing it of "viewpoint discrimination" and unfair admission standards that violate the free speech and religious rights of evangelical Christians.
The suit, scheduled for a hearing on Dec. 12 in Federal District Court in Los Angeles, says many of Calvary's best students are at a disadvantage when they apply to the university because admissions officials have refused to certify several of the school's courses on literature, history, social studies and science that use curriculums and textbooks with a Christian viewpoint.
The lawyer for the school, Robert Tyler, said reviewing and approving the course content was an intrusion into private education that amounted to government censorship. "They are trying to secularize private Christian schools," Mr. Tyler said. "They have taken God out of public schools. Now they want to do it at Christian schools."
A lawyer for the university, Christopher M. Patti, called the suit baseless. Acknowledging the university does not accept some courses,
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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And because I'm an ignorant Christian, and you're so much smarter than me, you believe you have the right to ensure my children are properly educated about that "methodology".
Sir, I have words for you which would be both unchristian, and would probably get me thrown off FR for TOS. I'll just end this by saying:
SFS
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the·o·ry
1. A set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena, especially one that has been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena.
2. The branch of a science or art consisting of its explanatory statements, accepted principles, and methods of analysis, as opposed to practice: a fine musician who had never studied theory.
3. A set of theorems that constitute a systematic view of a branch of mathematics.
4. Abstract reasoning; speculation: a decision based on experience rather than theory.
5. A belief or principle that guides action or assists comprehension or judgment: staked out the house on the theory that criminals usually return to the scene of the crime.
6. An assumption based on limited information or knowledge; a conjecture.
I know many people with wonderful academic credentials that are throughly unimpressive in real life. The fact that a person is rejected doesn't mean they have been unfairly rejected." - HitmanNY
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That's a relevant concern, and one that no one could answer without having the applications and student records in front of him. But consider this: How many creationist, Christian, and/or political conservatives are tenured professors in the UC system? As far as we know from published polls and articles, perhaps less than 10%, maybe even less than 5%. Is that imbalance because there just aren't that many smart, accomplished conservatives or Christians available or interested? If a 2% racial hiring imbalance is sufficient proof to launch an affirmative action law suit, why is a 95% imbalance not? The same folks who hire the UC professors are the ones who now have problems with certain, select, Christian-fundamentalist-students.
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I don't know the laws in California, but I believe that if you are a resident for a year, you are elligible to attend a California college/university. Maybe, California doesn't put much emphasis on SAT/ACT scores for in-state residents. This may have caused easier access to Cal. colleges/universities. Maybe there are Christian schools in California that are graduating kids with poor academic skills. I would bet, though, that liberal, atheistic loaded colleges, just want to keep the Christians out. - ScubieNuc
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My daughter is a 4.0, 1300 SAT, cheerleader, athlete, world traveled, ASB VP, Valedictorian and senior at a Calvary Chapel affiliated high school. She believes she has little chance at admissions to a UC school because even with her 1300 SAT's, she's been informed that the University of California is challenging individual courses of Calvary Chapel students. (She has taken Math through Calc and Trig, all sciences, 3 yrs foreign languages - she's done everything a High School student could do.)
We'll see things work out, but those five students involved in that law suit are probably the "best and brightest", not "duds". I can guarantee you that my daughter is not.
FReegards, SFS
Thought you'd be interested in this.
I know it's a stretch
I dont think it is a stretch.
They have met the same standard.
They had ADDED material of interest to them as a Christian school. They have not SUBTRACTED anything.
Also, please note the article's statement: "Young....With stellar grades, competitive test scores and an impressive list of extracurricular activities."
In other words, he has high SAT and ACT scores. That means that his education was just fine when compared with others.
But courses at colleges in porn are okay. I just don't get it.
I think some may think science is liberalism.
They rejected specific courses.
It was more than biology that was rejected. You don't have an agenda, do you?
Excellent point - one which is often overlooked in these cases.
Totally agree!
This article makes no mention of what the university thought was wrong with the classes.
Are the textbooks in other subjects as bad as the science textbooks they use? I have no problem with UC refusing to accredit a biology course taught with the materials they cite.
Assuming you mean public schools, why would a private school lower itself to the lowest possible common denominator?
Public schools are enthralled by the likes of the NEA, ACLU and other liberal organization who have openly declared war on Christianity. There's nothing different about Christianity in this country in perhaps over 200 years of it's existence, except perhaps a better understanding of what it takes to be a Christian by today's standards.
That being said, the relationship between the state funded school and the private school should not be altered because of a recently tainted view of Christian education.
I will say it plainly. ANY private Christian school is superior to a public school. There should be no issue here, the only existing issue is one of anti-Christian hatred.
The lawsuit isn't really about the students, it's about the textbooks and course material. It'll be interesting to see how this turns out. It could open the door for a lot of interesting alternative textbooks and schools...
Do you mean academically superior?
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