Creationists seek end run around accreditation

Creationists seek end run around accreditation

If a private college doesn't receive funds from any governmental organization, should they have to be held to any standards or requirements when they award degrees? No, one Texan lawmaker is insisting.

Texas State Representative Leo Berman has proposed House Bill 2800, which would exempt any private non-profit institution that requires students to complete “substantive course work” from having to acquire a certificate of authority from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board(THECB). “If you don’t take any federal funds, if you don’t take any state funds, you can do a lot more than some business that does take state funding or federal funding,” Berman says. “Why should you be regulated if you don’t take any state or federal funding?”

Because creationism isn't science, critics argue.

Critics of Berman's bill are enraged, claiming that it will de-legitimize any degree coming out of Texas. Eugenie Scott, executive director for the National Center for Science Education, told Foxnews.com that “all you have to do...is start a non-profit organization, don’t take any federal or state money, and then offer degrees in any fool subject you want. Teaching that the Earth is only 10,000 years old is a little irregular in modern science.”