smb@ulysses.UUCP (Steven Bellovin) (01/15/85)
A little-noticed clause in a federal aid to education bill bans spending desgregation grants to teach "secular humanism". The clause was inserted by Orrin Hatch; at his request, the term was left undefined in the rules implementing the bill. He prefers to let the local school board decide; given the broad meanings attributed to that phrase, such an omission is rather worrisome. (Sidenote: my favorite meaning is that "the humanities" is equivalent to "secular humanism"; I saw that one in the papers when the National Endownment for the Humanities was being proposed.) By way of contrast, the regulations do define such terms as "implementation date" and "minority group". Oh yes -- there is a reason why this is the subject of a bill on desegratation grants. The particular grants addressed by this bill are for use in setting up "magnet schools", schools with enhanced curricula.