A skeleton, believed to be 1.6 million years old, of Homo ergaster. (EPA/Jan-Peter Kasper)

Hallelujah, say the academics and scientists. The University of California has prevailed over a lawsuit that sought to force the university to accept creationist science classes from two private Christian high schools as college-prep courses.

And what did they teach in these science classes at Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta, one of the schools that sued? Well, one textbook in the class, published by Bob Jones University Press, informs youngsters that the earth is about 10,000 years old. The other textbook, "Biology: God's Living Creation," includes a lesson on how dinosaurs walked the earth with people, and might have faced extinction via flood. You know, THE flood.

That's one of the reasons for private schools, so that parents can find an educational environment tailored to their beliefs and values. But why they thought this would pass muster as science education with a top-flight public university is a mystery; as a matter of simple academic rigor, these lessons do not ready the students for classes at most colleges in the nation. The students who joined in the lawsuit reportedly were surprised to find that their courses didn't quality for UC; their beef ought to be with the high schools that led them to think this was college-prep material. Lawyers for the school say they've already filed appeals, but wouldn't the school be better off spending its money on real science textbooks?