Altunitive teaching may have more red tape

[Guest guest]

Hey there dear friends, colleagues and family,

 

The University of Metaphysical Sciences of which I teach for maybe to

be put out of biz by

this new law California is passing concerning education unless we get

Arnold

Schwarzenegger to VETO it and send it back for a rewrite to take out the

religious discrimination clause in it about how only " multidenominational "

and " well recognized religions " are the only ones who are going to be

allowed to teach in CA. Please check out the info below, would only

take you

5 min to do this for me and it will help a lot. Thank you Bill

http://timholmes.byregion.net

 

 

 

 

Hello Supporters of online teaching,

 

 

 

The University Of Metaphysical Sciences

desperately needs your help. This will only take 5 minutes of your

time. UMS

might be put out of business in January 2009 by new religious

discrimination

laws that are passing in the state of California. This bill is sitting on

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk waiting to be signed into law,

having

passed both houses in California already. They didn't happen to notice

a few

little words slipped into this version of the bill.

 

 

 

Our only hope of preventing this from this passing into law on January 1,

2009 is to encourage the Governor of California to VETO this bill and ask

for a rewrite to take out the religious discrimination clause. Only if he

hears from us will he be alerted to the fact that there is a flaw in the

religious exempt school portion of this bill. If you've ever fantasized

about writing to Arnold Schwarzenegger, now's your chance! (You're welcome

to let him know you liked him in the movies, but please don't say that

overused line he's famous for, " I'll be back. " He's probably tired of

hearing that.)

 

 

 

We must make our voices heard very quickly, for time is running out.

Please

email him immediately, it will only take 5 minutes of your time, and I

have

made it easy for you. You can simply copy and paste one of the emails

below,

either the long one or the short one, into the contact form at the

Governor's website (the url to his site and directions are below) Please

feel free to eliminate anything you don't agree with and you can put your

concerns in your own words or add more to the letter (it would be best to

add your personal contribution to the beginning of the letter so they see

that first). Please do include a sentence or two about why keeping a

religious discrimination clause out of the realms of the law in CA is

important to you, and let him know how important UMS is to you and

what your

experience is with being a student or supporter of UMS.

 

 

 

I'll let you in on a drama that has been happening for UMS since 2005. An

Education Dept employee, Joyce Leslie, said to us in July 2005,

" You're out

of business in 30 days because I'm not renewing your approval to

operate. In

my opinion only Christian schools should be considered religious

schools and

all these buddist, zen, sufi and metaphysical schools have to go. " The

next

day I called a supervisor and said that if the Christian schools were

still

in business and we weren't in 30 days, we would be going all the way

to the

supreme court if we had to concerning the BPPE's (Bureau of Private

Postsecondary Education) religious discrimination. They called back

and said

they were sending us our approval to operate immediately.

 

 

 

However, the next year during our renewal process various employees

participated in thwarting our renewal. They sent us an incomplete

application, played around for 9 months asking for documents they already

had and pretended to need again, asked us to jump through hoops that no

other school was being asked to do, except for other schools like

ours, the

Sufi school specifically. We did anything and everything they asked within

24 hours of their request and then they took months to process it.

Finally,

9 months later they issued a denial of approval to operate letter because

they " just got tired of waiting " when they themselves created the lag of

time that passed.

 

 

 

Immediately, we took them to court. It is not looking good for the

BPPE and

they are going to lose. However, if these new laws are signed into place

concerning the provision that only " well recognized religions " will be

allowed to teach in California that are " multidenominational " meaning that

only religions with more than one denomination will qualify, they will

have

a new way to put us out of business. We will have to waste a massive

amount

of UMS funds, on top of what we've already had to spend on their

efforts to

block our registration, trying to prove that metaphysics is a " well

recognized religion " and I'm not exactly sure that we'd be able to prove

that we are " multidenominational, " (Christian religion has many

denominations, like Protestant, Lutheran, Baptist, Catholic, etc) That

would

be another task upon us if this law passes.

 

 

 

Either that or we will have to prove that the law is unconstitutional

in the

first place, all of which are very expensive, negative and time consuming

processes that UMS simply doesn't have the money for, and probably other

small schools teaching lesser known religions are in the same boat. They

wouldn't be able to fight the court case it would take to prove the law is

unconstitutional. So our best bet is to get Arnold Schwarzenegger to VETO

the bill right now, which in essence forces it back for a rewrite

before it

can pass into law.

 

 

 

We immediately need all the emails we can get to go into the Governor's

office. If you have some friends who will do this too, it would be

great if

you would email this and ask them to assist our efforts. It is the

number of

emails in his office that will encourage him to investigate the

issues, VETO

this bill and ask for a fair rewrite about the religious discrimination

clause. There are a couple other factors as well that we're mentioning in

the email below which he should look into: powers granted to the BPPE to

turn off a school's phone without a decision by a real court of law,

and the

amount they are allowing schools to keep when a student asks for a

refund.

 

 

 

Here's the directions on how to do this, only takes 5 minutes of your

time:

 

 

 

1. Go to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's contact form at

http://gov.ca.gov/interact

2. type in your name, email and choose " Education Issues/Concerns " as

your subject

3. When it takes you to the next window, click on " Con " in the " Con or

Pro " section, which means you are against (con) or for (pro) a change

4. Copy and paste the long version or the short version of the email

below, or say it in your own words. Sign the email with your full

name at

the bottom. Add anything you would like to say to this email in

addition

to

what is copied and pasted. DON'T FORGET TO PUT YOUR NAME at the

bottom, or

it may not be valid. Note whether you are a UMS student or supporter.

5. Click on submit, and that's all there is to it! Not a lot of time is

taken up, but it is very powerful assistance that you have given to the

freedom of " lesser known religions " to have the right to teach in CA

along

with the bigger religions.

 

 

 

Thank you so much!

 

Christine Breese

 

 

 

Here's the letter below that you can copy and paste in the Governor's

contact form if you want the quick easy way. Feel free to use your own

words

or add to it as well, or take out anything you don't agree with.

 

 

 

(Short version)

 

 

 

Dear Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger,

 

 

 

1. Please VETO the SB 823 Education bill until it has been rewritten. I am

concerned about how it supports religious discrimination by employee

discretion at the BPPE (formerly the BPPVE) Bureau for Private

Postsecondary

Education.

 

 

 

The line in question is:

 

(Education Code 94874):

 

4) (A) A nonprofit institution owned, controlled, and operated and

maintained by a bona fide church, religious denomination, OR RELIGIOUS

ORGANIZATION COMPOSED OF MULTIDENOMINATIONAL MEMBERS OF THE SAME

WELL-RECOGNIZED RELIGION, lawfully operating as a nonprofit religious

corporation pursuant to Part 4 (commencing with Section 9110) of

Division 2

of Title 1 of the Corporations Code.

 

 

 

Why does a religion have to be " multidenominational " in order to

operate in

CA? If a religion doesn't have several denominations, like Christianity

does, is it going to be prevented from having a school in CA and teaching

its concepts? Is that constitutional? What is a " well-recognized religion "

and what is not? Who decides if it is a well recognized religion? The

BPPE?

Are they actually qualified to make those decisions?

 

 

 

Please note that this has been specifically changed from its original

wording on purpose. The previous wording is better suited for supporting

constitutional rights to freedom of religion than this new phrase.

This is a

sneaky trick that is being done so that employees of the BPPE can

" legally "

exercise their personal religious preferences that they have been

trying to

exercise over the past few years, specifically with University Of

Metaphysical Sciences (UMS) and several *other schools of lesser known

religions that are not " well recognized " or " multidenominational*. " *

*Currently,

UMS is in litigation with them specifically concerning this issue, and

that

is why this phrase is being sneaked into the bill, so they can avoid

lawsuits about religious discrimination that the BPPE has been

practicing up

until now.

 

 

 

2. No employee or board should be allowed to turn off a school's phone

without an objective hearing by a REAL court of law. Also, no 1-800

numbers

should be allowed to be turned off, since 1-800 numbers are not

California's

jurisdiction. California will be responsible for financial damages and

losses to schools in other states if California turns off a 1-800 number

that rings in another state at another school branch, even though the BPPE

may not know where that number rings.

 

 

 

3. Schools need at least $150 to cover expenses of postage, credit

card fees

and staff time when a student requests a refund. $100 is not enough for a

school to meet its administrative expenses for enrolling and then

refunding

a student.

 

 

 

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.

 

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(longer version with more details)

 

 

 

Dear Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger,

 

 

 

1. Please VETO the SB 823 Education bill until it has been rewritten. I am

concerned about how it supports religious discrimination by employee

discretion at the BPPE (formerly the BPPVE) Bureau for Private

Postsecondary

Education. This part of the bill is flawed, unconstitutional, and

interferes

with religious freedom. You might not want to go down in history for

signing

a law in California that goes directly against the Constitution of the

USA.

The BPPE has a history for religious discrimination against University of

Metaphysical Sciences (UMS) and UMS is currently in court with the BPPE

concerning this issue right now. It is possible this line is being snuck

into the SB 823 bill in order to get rid of schools like UMS and other

schools teaching " lesser known religions " that would not be considered

" multi-denominational. " Christianity is the only religion that has true

" multidenominational " status. Any other religion would have a hard time

proving that it is " multidenominational. "

 

 

 

If any religion has a bonafide church registered with the IRS as a

501©3,

no matter how " well-recognized " its religion is or if it is not

" multidenominational, " it should be allowed to operate in California along

with all the other better known religions.

 

 

 

The line in question is:

 

(Education Code 94874):

 

4) (A) A nonprofit institution owned, controlled, and operated and

maintained by a bona fide church, religious denomination, OR RELIGIOUS

ORGANIZATION COMPOSED OF MULTIDENOMINATIONAL MEMBERS OF THE SAME

WELL-RECOGNIZED RELIGION, lawfully operating as a nonprofit religious

corporation pursuant to Part 4 (commencing with Section 9110) of

Division 2

of Title 1 of the Corporations Code.

 

 

 

Please note that this has been specifically changed from its original

wording on purpose. This is will allow employees of the BPPE to " legally "

exercise their personal religious preferences that they have been

trying to

exercise over the past few years. Employees of the BPPE are not

qualified to

determine if a religion is a " well recognized religion. " Not even the IRS

attempts such an unconstitutional feat, nor is it required that a religion

has many denominations.

 

 

 

2. I am also concerned about the provision that allows the BPPE to

turn off

a school's phone number. This should only be decided by a court of

law, not

an employee at the BPPE or a board hearing comprised of members that BPPE

employees might know well and play golf with. Only an objective outside

agency should be allowed to determine the existence of a school. The

Department of Consumer Affairs is not objective, since it fought court

cases

on behalf of the BPPVE after the BPPVE was disbanded. Only a court of law

can be considered objective concerning a school's existence, and only a

court of law can be depended on to adhere to real laws and not be

persuaded

unfairly by employees of the BPPE.

 

 

 

1-800 numbers are not California's jurisdiction, so they should be exempt

from this power granted to the BPPE to be able to turn off a school's

phone

number. Protection needs to be provided in this part of the law. 1-800

numbers are not local in California. Otherwise California might find

itself

financially responsible for damages and losses to schools in other states

that are outside of California's jurisdiction. If the BPPE orders a 1-800

phone number turned off that a school has been using, they will be

interfering with that school's ability to conduct business in another

state

since the 1-800 number might be ringing at a branch outside of

California.

 

 

 

I encourage you to ask for a rewrite on this part of the bill that will

protect the branches of schools in other states from having their phone

turned off that are not in California's jurisdiction. This will also

protect

California from being sued for large sums of money due to financial losses

and damages that schools in other states might suffer due to this power

granted to the BPPE to turn off phones. This invites a large financial

liability issue for the state of California.

 

 

 

3. Also, when a student requests a refund, $150 should be kept for

administrative costs, not $100. $100 does not cover what it costs to

accept

and then refund a credit card, due to the cost of processing credit cards,

or the postage used for mailing materials. $150 does cover that expense. I

encourage you to ask for a rewrite on this part of the bill.

 

 

 

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. I respect your

wisdom

in this decision, and I hope that you defend our rights to learn about

whatever religion we want to learn about in the state of California. You

must create checks and balances on employees at the BPPE, which has a

history of being inconsistent, arbitrary and undependable as to a reliable

outcome according to the Bureau of State Audits report. If " well

recognized

religions " can teach in California, so should lesser known religions that

don't have lot of denominations.

 

 

 

Sincerely,