The accusations are not lost on Susan Campbell, Aaron's mother. "I'm a Christian," says Campbell, "so I was very concerned about the controversy." So concerned, in fact, she asked her pastor about the program. "He's really sharp, and he said it is anti-Christian," she says, with resignation. "I guess I have to accept that as his opinion."...

...Armed with Internet research and information picked up from phone calls to other districts with the IB program nationwide, a bevy of parents is fighting to prevent the international program from continuing in their prestigious district. Their pleas for the program's elimination culminated in February, when they presented a petition to the school board. In a telling example of how much momentum their movement has, parents say it took them just a couple of days to collect almost 100 signatures.

The petition gives seven reasons why the program's elimination is needed, one of them being that "the International Baccalaureate rejects the Judeo-Christian values held by the majority of families in our district and instead promotes the atheistic Secular Humanist principles of multiculturalism, pacifism, one-world government, and moral relativism."

Several parents, after getting pegged as Christian fundamentalists by supporters of the program, shy away from some of the statements espoused in the petition. Paul Borowski, a parent of three children in the district, does not. "Our education system is the envy of the world," says Borowski, citing the IB's origins. "Why would we want to subordinate that to some organization connected with the United Nations?" ...

The IB program was developed in 1968 as a way for diplomats' children to have a uniform, rigorous education in Europe. The International Baccalaureate Organization, governed by a board in Geneva, Switzerland, aims to develop inquiring and caring people who help create a more peaceful world through intercultural understanding. Gov. Tim Pawlenty and President George Bush--two people who aren't particularly known for their anti-American, anti-Christian beliefs--have endorsed the program.

(While the United Nations did partially fund the program in its inception, and IB is taught at some UN schools, the UN does not have any governance over the program.) ...

From Borowski's view, the program is anti-American in the sense that it teaches students that the United States is equal to other countries. "My fear is that my kids are going to be taught America isn't better than any other country in the world," Borowski says.