Berman is getting raked over the coals for this bill, but the issue is not as simple or as clear-cut as is usually presented. There are some very good questions at its core.

For example, who decides what is science? Or what is good science? To name just one issue: we have seen Big Pharma-funded "science" undermine the credibility of research done at many prestigious American universities, Harvard included, so it's a weak argument to say that the standard can be found in academia.

Should the state get to decide what is good science and what is not? We have seen the USA and the state of TX being both wrong and dictatorial on one issue after another. Does the FDA practice good science? I don't think so. Did the SEC do a good job with the science of economics? No, they did not. How about FBI crime labs and forensic science? Same story. A plethora of mistakes, wrong views, and many innocent people harmed.

What is science? All too often it acts like an ideology advancing an agenda, and not like the open and free debate it should be.

What is education but a kind of coercion of the young, followed by "voluntary" enrollment in colleges and beyond? We supposedly let the market place determine what we can buy and sell, but only the state can decide what is taught?

There is a big states' rights move going on right now in the USA, the basic purpose of which is to take powers back from the federal government that do not belong there. When either states or the federal government are given total power over education, they are being given too much power. Yes, we need to have standards, but is the government the only place to get them? ABN

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?"

Source: americanbuddhist.net