Religion, education clash

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Dec 17, 2005 | by Jessica Zisko The Press-Enterprise

In public schools, textbooks tell students that Roe vs. Wade gave women the right to choose an abortion. Textbooks in some Christian schools say the landmark Supreme Court case advanced the "slaughter" of the unborn.

Public school students read that Mark Twain was a great American author. Their peers in some Christian schools also read about him, but as a man who rejected his creator and was hopeless.

University of California officials say some lessons in Christian textbooks don't meet their admissions standards. Their belief has led to a lawsuit that pits the public university system against six students of a Murrieta, Calif., Christian school who say their religious views hurt their chances of being accepted for enrollment by the university.

The suit, scheduled for a hearing Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, centers on three classes offered at Calvary Chapel Christian School that university officials have refused to certify for admissions credit.

High school students who want to attend a university campus must complete a sequence of university-approved college-preparatory courses. The lawsuit says the university system discriminated against the Christian students by refusing to certify the classes, therefore preventing them from taking the Calvary courses they want.

University officials argue that they have a right to set admissions standards to ensure that students are ready for college and say they consistently reject courses from both public and private schools for not meeting those benchmarks.

"There is a trend in higher education to eliminate God from everything," says Robert Tyler, one of the school's attorneys.

The outcome of the court battle could have powerful ramifications for admissions policies at other public universities because the 10- campus University of California is considered a flagship system nationwide, experts say.

"The UC is so important that other universities will follow what they do," said Steven Roy Goodman, a Washington, D.C.-based educational consultant who has advised college-bound students on applications for nearly two decades.

Christian-education advocates also are watching. They say a defeat for their side could undermine the ability of Christian schools to teach their beliefs because students would have less access to a University of California education.

The Calvary students, their school and the Association of Christian Schools International filed the lawsuit.

None of the students has been rejected by the university. Two are seniors and will apply this winter. The others are juniors and sophomores who plan to apply.

Attorneys for the school have refused requests to let the students or their families comment on the case.

The suit lists Cody Young as one of the Calvary students. The senior plays on the varsity basketball team and has high test scores. He hopes to study aerospace engineering at the University of California-San Diego, according to the suit.

The lawsuit highlights a growing nationwide clash over what, and how, high school students should learn before college.

In Pennsylvania, a judge is expected to rule by January on whether a school district can teach intelligent design -- the theory that life is so complex that the universe must have been created by an intelligent force -- alongside evolution. In Kansas, the state Board of Education in November deleted the teaching of evolution from the state's science curriculum.

The Murrieta students' lawsuit goes beyond science. It also addresses one literature and two history courses that university officials have refused to certify, identifying them and the textbooks they use as biased or contradictory to knowledge "generally accepted" in the collegiate community, according to the suit.

"They are citizens with a right to that education just as much as any student," said Ken Smitherman, president of the Association of Christian Schools International. "Just because they chose private education should not eliminate them."

University officials say they have the authority to set academic benchmarks so students can be successful later in life.

"There's no mandate that the schools are not allowed to teach these courses," university attorney Christopher Patti said. "All the university is doing is setting standards for what students need to know when they get here."

Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com