Saturday, August 27, 2005

Good for UC

According to an article in the LA Times,
University of California admissions officials have been accused in a federal civil rights lawsuit of discriminating against high schools that teach creationism and other conservative Christian viewpoints.

The suit was filed in Los Angeles federal court Thursday by the Assn. of Christian Schools International, which represents more than 800 religious schools in the state, and by the Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta, which has an enrollment of more than 1,000.
It's not clear what the basis of the suit is. It can't be that the plaintiffs are arguing that UC can't set standards for high school courses that will count toward admiission. The first paragraph claims it's a discrimination suit. But certainly UC can discriminate among high school course on the basis of quality. It will be interesting to see where this goes if anywhere. I'm surprised that the plaintiffs have the nerver even to file such a suit.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The discrimination is not a matter of quality--the quality is there. The students are learning the content. The discrimination is on the basis of the Christian world-view that is associate with the curriculum. THAT is discrimination. The university contends that the material is taught from to narrow a view (that being Christian), but also allows curriculum taught from feminist, other religion, and other philosophical leanings...it appears to me that the Christian community should be awarded the same chance to infuse their worldview, providing that the does in fact maintain an academic rigor. What do you think?

Russ Abbott said...

The issue is a matter of quality and content. The UC claim is that the students haven't been taught the required material.