Christians Sue University for Fraternity Recognition

Christian lawyers have filed a federal lawsuit against the University of Georgia (UGA) after school officials refused to officially recognize a Christian fraternity. The lawyers pointed out that the university permits political party-affiliated groups to have a party membership requirement but won't allow a Christian group to require that its members be Christians. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia Tuesday, states that members of the Beta Upsilon Chi fraternity "will suffer and continue to suffer irreparable harm to their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights," because the university has refused to recognize the group.

The fraternity was recognized by the university during the 2005-2006 academic year, but recognition was revoked in 2006 because of the group's requirement that members profess Christian beliefs. University policy states that "student organizations ... may not exclude members on the basis of race, nationality, ethnic origin, color, religion, sex, age, and/or disability."

University recognition is important because it enables groups to access meeting space or advertise their events on campus. The lawsuit asks the court to require the university to recognize the group and to pay its legal fees. The fraternity, also called Brothers Under Christ, was formed at the University of Texas at Austin in 1985 and maintains chapters at 17 universities, including UGA. The fraternity says it exists "for the purpose of establishing brotherhood and unity among college men based on the common bond of Jesus Christ."

Lawyers from the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) and the Christian Legal Society (CLS), the groups suing the school on behalf of the students, say UGA's policy violates students' First Amendment rights to freedom of religion and assembly. "Christian student groups cannot be singled out for discrimination," Timothy Tracey, litigation counsel for CLS, said in a statement. "The right of association applies to all student groups on a public university campus." Tracey said the university "deprives Christian student groups of this right when they force them to open their membership and leadership to students who disagree with their Christian beliefs." "The university allows the Young Democrats to require its officers and members to be Democrats," Tracey said. "Why is it then that the university is telling Christian groups that they cannot require their officers and members to be Christians."

UGA does recognize Young Democrats, College Republicans and several Christian student groups including Campus Crusade for Christ and the Georgia Christian Student Center. It currently recognizes 35 fraternities and 24 sororities. UGA Assistant Director for Clubs and Organizations Josh Podvin directed questions about the lawsuit to Vice President of Student Affairs Rodney Barrett, who did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

Precedent

There is some precedent for courts overturning similar policies requiring non-discrimination in student groups. The ADF and CLS successfully challenged a non-discrimination requirement at the Southern Illinois University in July. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit ruled that "when the government forces a group to accept for membership someone the group does not welcome and the presence of the unwelcome person 'affects in a significant way the group's ability to advocate' its viewpoint, the government has infringed on the group's freedom of expressive association." That decision relied heavily on the 1974 Supreme Court case Healy v. James, in which the court overturned a Central Connecticut State College refusal to recognize Students for a Democratic Society, a radical left-wing student group. In Healy, the court ruled that the students' rights had been "impermissibly infringed because the school refused to confer student organization status and its attendant benefits on SDS," according to the 7th Circuit interpretation of the case. The court "drew a distinction between rules directed at a student organization's actions and rules directed at its advocacy or philosophy," ruling that the former is permissible but the latter is not.

The Christian Legal Society has also successfully convinced several universities - including Ohio State University and Penn State University - to grant religious groups exemptions from the non-discrimination policies without going to trial. David French, director of ADF's Center for Academic Freedom, said religious student groups are "often specifically targeted by universities" because they are "far outside the ideological mainstream of the university, which is deeply anti-religious." French said that universities are "completely captured by an ideology that says in essence ... religious organizations should not be able to exercise their faith in a way that would be offensive to another person, or in a way that they think would exclude another person."

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The Australian Left wants education reform too

"Postmodern" bu**sh** may have finally had its day in Australua



Kevin Rudd will demand "quality control" from the nation's schools to guarantee the children of working families a good education. Setting out his broad guide to beating John Howard at next year's election, the new Opposition Leader said yesterday he would not allow the Commonwealth to shovel billions of dollars in education funding to the states without schools performing to adequate standards.

As Mr Rudd wrestled with the final places on his new front bench, expected to be announced over the weekend, he promised a review of all party policy over Christmas. He said Labor's industrial campaign would be extended "beyond the workplace", saying the most critical aspect of fairness from the party was in "educational opportunity".

"I mean educational opportunity for kids from working families to have a high quality of education with high standards applied to it, and that means a strong emphasis on the quality control of education outcomes," he told The Weekend Australian. "I am not interested in simply investing and providing greater investment into education in the absence of guarantees of quality outcomes for working families." Mr Rudd's new approach will put the states on notice that a future Labor government will demand strong results from its financial investment in schools.

In a veiled swipe at Kim Beazley, Mr Rudd said yesterday that while it was "early days yet", he would be reviewing all Labor policies and wanted to do away with the "mixed messages" of the past. "The problem often in the past has been message confusion, too much on offer and distinctions not clear enough. I intend to reduce it down and make it clear," Mr Rudd said.

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Australia: Far-Left education-wrecker to go

A nasty piece of goods all-round. Her chief talent seems to be in bed. Her boyfriend is the Deputy Premier and Treasurer, Eric Ripper



Besieged West Australian Education Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich is set to be dumped from her crisis-ridden Education portfolio within days. But she will not be sacked from cabinet, after a parliamentary committee investigating her conduct failed this week to recommend any action against her. Premier Alan Carpenter yesterday ruled out dropping Ms Ravlich from Cabinet. He said the Upper House committee's report was "non-conclusive" but he refused to back her retaining education in a reshuffle expected next week....

Ms Ravlich was tarnished earlier this year by her mishandling of curriculum changes which were to have been implemented in 2007 but have now been delayed. A public outcry forced the Premier to intervene in the push to enshrine outcomes-based education.

She was also tainted by her contact with disgraced former Labor premier Brian Burke, who brokered a meeting for her with the editor of The West Australian to discuss her negative publicity. But the death knell sounded when a damning Corruption and Crime Commission report on her department's failure to investigate sexual misconduct complaints against teachers was released in October. The parliamentary inquiry examined Ms Ravlich's claim that she didn't know about the 10-month CCC probe, which was why she did nothing about the problems in her department. The issue escalated when former Education Department chief Paul Albert said he told her about the probe four times.

On Thursday, a majority finding by the committee said she probably did know and also found she had misled parliament. But Mr Carpenter said "probably" was not definitely and there was still considerable doubt about how many times the matter was referred to the minister....

Opposition education spokesman Peter Collier said the Premier should move Ms Ravlich immediately. He said the education sector had been crippled by disenchantment and lack of confidence. "Wherever she goes she will take with her a baggage of incompetence and that's a shame for her next portfolio," Mr Collier said.

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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