College Credit for Creationism

College Credit for Creationism is the tagline of a renewed assault on education standards in the United States.

A group of Christian schools, including the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) and others, sued the University of California and several of its officials in their individual capacities. The cause of their complaint was the refusal of the University to give credit for the creationism taught by the ACSI schools in place of biology and specifically evolution.

At issue in particular was the non-recognition of the Bob Jones University-produced "science" textbooks which are short on science and long on pseudoscience and ideology. The issue is not a separation of church and state matter, but rather the surprising claim that in denying them credit for learning pseudoscience, the University was discriminating against students of the ACSI schools on the basis of religion.

The court granted partial summary judgement dismissing the suit against the university officials in their individual capacity, and then granted summary judgement in favor of the University of California. The case was appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which affirmed, and in 2010 the Supreme Court declined certiorari, thus bringing the case to an end.