The Tennessee ConserVOLiance

Eleven Brentwood residents have submitted their names to be considered as candidates to fill out the unexpired term on the city’s Board of Commissioners created by the April 10 death of Commissioner Bill Youree.

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The Department of Education has so far succeeded in declaring all homeschoolers’ high school diplomas to be invalid.

Bill Hobbs has a nice summary of what the Department has done:

“Cindy Benefield, the Tennesseee Department of Education Executive Director of Field Services, who oversees the state’s homeschooling office, recently declared that a diploma from a church-related school is “not worth the paper it is written on.” That is not just the idle opinion of one uninformed bureaucrat, but has become Department policy. Bredesen’s education commissioner, Tim Webb, told four legislators in April that until the legislature passes a law stating that the diplomas given by church-related schools are acceptable, they aren’t acceptable for certain kinds of employment.”

“And the state is now preventing people who hold diplomas from church-related schools or home schools from holding certain jobs. For example: a police officer in Roane County, who holds a diploma from a church-related school, then graduated the police academy with perfect grades, has been demoted and prohibited from continuing to serve as a police officer - even though he also graduated from the local community college. The Rockwood police officer has been forced to take a desk job until he takes and passes the GED because the Department of Education says his 2001 diploma from a church-related school is invalid.”

“The fallout goes beyond that one officer. Suspects he has arrested may be set free because he can not appear as a witness in the case because the state, which regulates the profession, says his diploma is invalid.”

Church-related schools (CRS) have been issuing high school diplomas since at least 1975 - and until now, they’ve always been accepted, never been challenged. The bigger irony in this is that the Tennessee university system and the Lottery scholarships continue to accept CRS diplomas. It’s a fair assumption to predict that the Department of Education would like that practice to stop as well.

Rep. Mike Bell’s bill to reverse this stunning policy change escaped the House Ed Committee without being hijacked, but it is now sitting in the Calendar & Rules Committee where it may be quietly allowed to die. If that happens, the Department will have succeeded in disenfranchising thousands of high school graduates by bureaucratic fiat. There are upwards of 40,000 homeschool students in TN. Probably 3,000 of them graduate from high school each year. The Department’s actions not only invalidate the diplomas of this year’s graduating class, they retroactively invalidate the diplomas of thousands who have graduated over the past thirty years.

What’s happening is an outrage. We have a shortage of good police officers. We have a shortage of good daycare workers - but the Department of Education can’t stand it that someone out there might be getting an education outside their control.

- Rob Shearer
Director, Schaeffer Study Center
(aka RedHatRob, where this is cross-posted)

Help to support our deployed Fort Campbell troops.

Help us tell our troops we love them!

Shannon Sarver-Brown shares the dream

Progress Updates

The Goal: To pack and ship 6000 backpacks filled with personal items such as phone cards, encouraging notes, small toys etc to the members of the 506th Brigade Combat Team home based from Ft Campbell, KY. in time for them to receive them before Father’s Day.

The Deadline: Everything needs to be collected by May 21st in order to be packed and shipped in time to arrive by June 15th.

The Need: HELP!!! We need donations, we need letters of support and cards of encouragement. We need people to pack and assemble the bags. We need businesses, churches, schools, day cares and clubs to help sponsor the shipping and provide the donations. We also need additional locations to become drop off points for donations to assist those who can’t get to Madison to donate.

FAQ:

Why backpacks? By using children’s backpacks, we are giving the gift of giving. The troops can “re-gift” them to the children in the area they are serving, along with the toys (such as small stuffed animals) we are including.

What about the Brigade members who are not fathers? We don’t want anyone left out, so we are including the entire the Brigade in our Operation, male and female. We want to encourage them all — after all, every one of them has a “Dad”.

How much will it cost to ship all this overseas? Approximately $5.32 per bag. That amount multiplied by 6000 is $31,920.00. That’s why we need shipping sponsors.
Where can I drop off my donations?
Madison Church of Christ, 106 N Gallatin Road, Madison, TN 615.860.3204
Madison Chamber of Commerce, 301 Madison St, Madison, TN 615.865.5400

Old Hickory Credit Union, all locations
Main Branch, 1000 Industrial Road, Old Hickory, TN (615) 847-4043
Lebanon - 1401 West Main Street, Lebanon, TN
Rivergate - 708 Rivergate Parkway, Goodlettsville, TN
Nashville - 444 Enos Reed Road, Nashville, TN
Hendersonville - 543 E. Main (Gallatin Rd.), Hendersonville, TN
Greenbrier - 2338 Hwy 41 S, Greenbrier, TN
Clarksville Highway - 4123 Clarksville Pike, Nashville, TN

Shiloh Music Center, 4066A N. Mt Juliet Rd, Mt Juliet, TN 615.758.9437

Volunteer State Bank, all locations:
Portland, 101 Hwy 52 W, Phone: 615.325.9257
Gallatin, 615 Nashville Pike, Phone: 615.452.6666
Hendersonville (Main) 239 West Main St. Phone: 615.824.6542
530 New Shackle Island Road Phone: 615.824.6844
Goodlettsville, 405 Long Hollow Pike Phone: 615.855.6676
Orlinda, 1204 East Church Street Phone: 615.654.3388
Springfield, 1310 Memorial Blvd. Phone: 615.384.9623

What items are suggested?

*Note & Letters (No political references please)
Video Games
I-Tune Gift Cards
*Carabiners(found in camping sections)
DVD’s
Music CD’s
AA or AAA Batteries

See here for more suggestions

Cross posted at Bear Creek Ledger

Technorati Tags: Father’s Day 2008 Operation Dad, 506th BCT 101st ABN, Fort Campbell, Support The Troops

It was with quite a bit of alarm that I read this article at inforwars.net today. I was not alarmed because of what was being done in the name of security, I was alarmed by the deafening silence of it. The government is now legally able, within six months, to get a DNA sample from every child born in the United States. Be it from a cheek swab or heel-stick blood sample, the parents will have no right or say whatsoever in the matter of submitting their children’s genetic samples to the government (at least that is how I am reading this)…

Entire article at : http://theconservatarian.blogivists.com/2008/05/08/bush-signs-bill-to-take-all-newborns-dna/

Longest blog post title ever…

The bill was HB 1652, and you can read the history of how we got here in an earlier post.

The terminology of legislative committees is QUITE confusing… apologies to all. Enacting legislation is messy… today was a little messier than most.

When the problem with the police officer and daycare worker surfaced, the deadline for introducing legislation had already passed, so Rep. Bell made a quick search for already introduced bills which dealt with the appropriate section of state law (sometimes abbreviated as TCA , stands for Tennessee Code Annotated). Rep. Ferguson had originally introduced a bill dealing with the section of state law governing Church-related schools (the so-called “caption” of the bill must state which section of state law will be amended). Rep. Bell and Rep. Ferguson agreed to use his bill to try to amend state law so that diplomas from church-related schools would be accepted by state agencies, regardless of whether the church-related school was accredited. To do that, they needed to take Rep. Ferguson’s original bill and “re-write” it by amending it and stripping out all of the original language and substituting the new draft that they wanted.

So, Rep. Bell and Rep. Ferguson were the co-sponsors of a bill before the House Education Committee today, and their first task was to seek to have the committee approve their amendment which re-wrote the bill to do what they wanted.

In the meantime, the department of Ed’s representative (Dr. Opie?)) had informally circulated an amendment to Rep. Bell’s bill. That amendment would have required CRS’s to only hire instructors with baccalaureate degrees. That amendment was never introduced, although Dr. Obee make some joking references to it having been circulated widely around the state. His logic was that if the state was going to have to accept a CRS Cat IV diploma, then the state should have some oversight over what was taught and who taught it. Topic for more discussion later.

So… Rep. Bell and Rep. Ferguson present their bill to the committee. Their first order of business is to request that the bill be amended with their agreed-on new language (which had been reviewed and recommended by a sub-committee). At that point, the Memphis delegation began their hour-long filibuster and proposal of an “amendment to the amendment” of the bill which would amend existing state law. Everybody still with me?

The Memphis amendment would have directed the State Department of Education to recognize those public school students who completed all their course work but failed the Gateway tests as having valid high school diplomas as well as recognizing category IV diplomas as valid if issued before July 1, 2008. Next year, of course, we’d be back in the same dilemma and fighting with the legislature all over again. The Memphis delegation tactic was to hijack this bill for their own purposes. Gateway tests have already been re-defined to count as only 25% of course grades, rather than being must-pass, but they are valiantly attempting to get high school diplomas for kids who have been unable to pass the Gateway tests in years past.

On the vote on the Memphis amendment, the Chairman (Rep. Les Winningham) originally called for a voice vote and then announced that the Memphis amendment had passed. Rep. Bell asked for a roll call vote. He can’t get one automatically, unless a Rep. on the committee asks for one. When one of the committee members asked for the roll call, the chairman directed the clerk to call the roll. Much to the embarrassment of the chairman, the roll call showed that the amendment had failed by a vote of 7-10.

So the Memphis amendment was defeated… now they were back to Rep. Bell and Rep. Fergusons’s original request to re-write the bill with their agreed-on language. That vote was also done by roll call and it passed, 9-7 with one voting present. It was immediately followed by a vote on the amended bill itself, reporting it out of committee (called “sending it to calendar and rules,” which is the committee which actually schedules bills for the full house of representatives). That vote, also by roll call was identical, 9-7 with one voting present.

Result: Representative Bell’s and Representative Ferguson’s bill came out of the Education Committee exactly the way they wanted it, written the way they wanted, without any amendment that they don’t want.

The Department of Ed amendment which would have required a baccalaureate degree for every instructor in grades 9-12 was never introduced or voted on. The Memphis amendment which would have dealt with prior year Gateway exam stopped public school students AND only recognized CRS diploma’s through July of 2008 was also defeated.

This is an important (and surprising) result. The bill which was reported out would require all state agencies to accept CRS diplomas as valid high school diplomas. Period. Regardless of whether the CRS was category II, III, or IV. This was the situation until just this year. In effect, it reverses the new policy of the department this year which began treating non-accredited CRS diplomas as invalid. It would require DHS to accept Cat IV diplomas as valid for work in a day care center, and it would require the Police accreditation commission to accept CRS diplomas as valid for those seeking to be police officers.

Next step: the bill must pass the full house of representatives AND a companion bill must pass the state senate AND then be signed by the Governor. None of these three steps is automatic or easy… though they may be easier than the mountain that had to be climbed today.

UNLESS this bill is passed, the state dept of ed will apparently continue to treat Cat IV diplomas as “worthless.” We need this bill to pass. Ironically, its not so important for homeschooled students who go on to college. Colleges and universities both in TN and nationwide have had NO problems with Cat IV diplomas. They have the ACT/SAT and other criteria to go with them. It’s the jobs that do not require a college degree but DO require a high school diploma where the problems have arisen. You don’t have to have a college degree to be a police officer – but you do have to have a high school diploma. You don’t have to have a college degree to work in a day care center – but you do have to have a high school diploma. It is in precisely those two situations where the problem has arisen. Please stay in touch with your homeschool community over the next two weeks. There is much work still to do in order to get this bill passed.

Footnote: Though the Dept spokesman today did say that they were going to internally review individual cases and would attempt to handle exceptions( like the police officer who had completed the police training academy but was then told he could no longer serve as an officer because his Cat IV high school diploma was not acceptable), I do not find that reassuring. The old homeschool law required a college degree to be able to homeschool your high school student unless you had a waiver from the Commissioner of Education. In 10+ years, despite a number of well-documented and reasonable requests, no Commissioner ever granted a waiver.

- Rob Shearer
Publisher, Greenleaf Press
Director, Schaeffer Study Center
and RedHatRob

Something that’s been intriguing to me of late (here, here and at other times when Evolution has come up as a debate topic) is how obviously the issue of Evolution goes way deeper than science with Lefties. As a result, their credibility suffers and their claims lack traction . . . a majority of Americans are still skeptical.

As a neo-Darwinism skeptic myself, I do not believe that all living beings have a common descendant. I won’t pretend that I have a deep understanding of science, much less that I’m an expert. And I won’t pretend that Evolutionists don’t (typically) have compelling credentials, and intelligence, and even evidence supporting their theory of Origins. But, as noted above, a majority of Americans are with me on the issue–despite a secular, Left-of-center stranglehold on the opinion-shapers of public education, Academia and the so-called Mainstream Media. That lack of traction is intriguing and significant. Sure, my views on Evolution also go deeper than science, but I’m not claiming otherwise.

Too many on the Left aren’t getting the message that they’ve got work to do on the PR front. So let’s consider why the majority of us aren’t buying what Evolutionists are selling. There are are a variety of reasons–some substantive, some rhetorical– but here are a few. [Read more →]

Kay Brooks has a great post summarizing the story so far: Good enough for UT, Vandy, Harvard...

The Tennessee Department of Education seems intent on picking a fight with church-related schools in general and homeschoolers in particular. They’ve been “educating” other state agencies for some time now about the fact that so-called “Category IV Schools” in Tennessee are unaccredited and that their diplomas are “worthless.” This has led to the demotion of a police officer who had completed the police academy with a 4.0 average and the forced firing of a daycare worker (from a daycare run by her grandmother!), lest the daycare lose its state license for hiring a child-care worker without a “valid” high school diploma.

One of the good guys, Rep. Mike Bell, is attempting to reassert legislative control over education policy decisions. He’s co-sponsoring a bill, HB1652, that would require the state to recognize Category IV high school diplomas as valid. Alas, he’s meeting resistance from the Department of Education. They’ve countered with an amendment to the bill that would prohibit private, church-related schools from hiring ANY instructor for grades 9-12 who did not have a baccaluareate degree recognized by the State Board of Education.

Below is the message I just sent to the members of the House Education Committee.

Rep. Bell’s bill is scheduled to be heard by the full Education Committee today at 3:15pm central time.

- Rob Shearer
(aka RedHatRob - where this is cross-posted)

************************************************************

‘rep.leslie.winningham@legislature.state.tn.us’; ‘rep.tommie.brown@legislature.state.tn.us’; ‘rep.joe.towns@legislature.state.tn.us’; ‘rep.barbara.cooper@legislature.state.tn.us’; ‘rep.john.hood@legislature.state.tn.us’; ‘rep.ulysses.jones@legislature.state.tn.us’; ‘rep.mark.maddox@legislature.state.tn.us’; ‘rep.michael.mcdonald@legislature.state.tn.us’; ‘rep.larry.turner@legislature.state.tn.us’; ‘rep.john.windle@legislature.state.tn.us’

To: the honorable members of the House Education Committee

cc: Claiborne Thornton, President of THEA, Doug Fraley, President of MTHEA, and other interested parties:

As the Vice President of the Tennessee Association of Church Related Schools (TACRS), I have a few thoughts on the current controversy around Category IV non-accredited privates schools, their diplomas, and the amendment proposed by the Department of Education to HB1652.

This crisis is the result of the Tennessee Department of Education’s decision to arbitrarily treat category IV high school diplomas as “not worth the paper they are printed on.” The decision by the Department to declare thousands of high school diplomas issued over the past sixteen years as invalid for employment or certification is without precedent, without legal foundation, and without any evidence of any problem associated with those diplomas. When a police department and a day care center are told they must discharge good employees, with excellent records and qualifications, because the Department of Education does not deem their diplomas to be valid, we have a real problem.

This outrageous decision by the Department of Education MUST be (and can only be) overturned by the legislature. The legislature has a duty to correct foolish, capricious, and wicked policy decisions. Make no mistake, the Department has engaged in a raw bureaucratic power grab. There was no act by the legislature adopting this policy. The legislature must act to reign in the Department and reassert its role as the proper policy maker.

For all these reasons, the amended version of HB1652 proposed by Rep. Mike Bell deserves swift passage by the legislature. If the legislature does not act, then a gross injustice will continue to be done to thousands of Tennesseans. The legislature must act to reassert the principle that the department does not make education policy, the legislature does.

As to the draft amendment which has been circulated by the Department of Education, which seeks to impose departmental oversight over teacher hiring by Category IV schools – it too is a raw bureaucratic power grab. There is no crisis. But the Department is suddenly and unilaterally seeking to assert oversight over who can be hired by church-related schools.

The Department, in its proposed amendment, asserts that ALL instructors for grades 9-12 should have a baccalaureate degree from a college recognized by the State Board of Education. Leaving aside the bureaucratic nightmare of the State Board of Education reviewing college diplomas from schools around the country, this assertion is also bad public policy.

Why should ALL teachers instructing grades 9-12 have to possess a college diploma?

Does the Department have statistical, anecdotal, or research evidence to support this policy change?

What evidence does the Department have of any problems which have arisen as a result of instruction in grades 9-12 by private school teachers without a college degree?

A) Is there a problem? If so, can it be defined?

B) Is their proposed solution the right one? Will it fix the problem? How do they know?

If questions A and B above cannot be answered in some detail, then the Department’s amendment is suspect for being arbitrary and capricious.

I can think of dozens of examples of excellent high school instruction which has been and is being given to high school students by teachers who do not have a college degree.

What about a shop class by a skilled artisan/mechanic who does not have a college degree?

What about an art class given by a gifted and accomplished artist who does not have a college degree?

What about a creative writing class being taught by a published author who does not have a college degree?

What about a home economics class being taught by a master chef who does not have a college degree?

What about a computer programming class being taught by a highly skilled and highly paid programmer who does not have a college degree?

What about a course in personal finance being taught by a successful local business owner / entrepreneur who does not have a college degree?

What about a course in military history being taught by a military veteran (also a published military historian) who does not have a college degree?

What about a course in a foreign language being taught by a bilingual instructor, whose native tongue is the language being taught, but who does not have a college degree?

I could go on, but I think you get my drift…

Parents who choose a category IV school for their children’s education know what they are choosing. The legislature has rightly separated private church-related schools from the oversight of the state Department of Education. The Department is prohibited by state law from regulating church-related schools with respect to “the selection of faculty or textbooks or the establishment of a curriculum.” I see no reason to breach that separation, especially on this issue.

If passed, the Department’s amendment would entail a requirement for reporting to and inspection by the Department of all church-related schools. The Department of Education will necessarily want to see detailed records of all classes and all instructors at all private schools in Tennessee to insure that no one without an approved baccalaureate degree has done any instruction. It does not take much imagination to think of the many points of contention and conflict which will result.

On behalf of TACRS, let me state unequivocally that we are strongly opposed to the amendment proposed by the Department of Education.

And, on behalf of TACRS, let me state unequivocally that we strongly urge the legislature to reverse the Department’s arrogant stance that Category IV high school diplomas are “not worth the paper they are written on.” I urge you to pass Rep. Bell’s amended version of HB 1652.

Please feel free to forward this email to anyone you choose. I ask only that the email be sent in its entirety and unedited.

I am willing to meet with any member of the Department of Education or the Legislature and/or testify before the House Education Committee, if you think it would be helpful.

- Rob Shearer

Vice President, Tennessee Association of Church Related Schools

Director, Schaeffer Study Center
www.schaefferstudycenter.org
1000 Woodridge Place
Mt. Juliet, TN 37122

“There is only one good reason to be a Christian - because it’s true.” - Francis Schaeffer

In 1998, the several states which comprise our grand experiment in representative democracy found themselves on the receiving end of a windfall!! After years of abuse and under threat of continued litigation financed from the state’s deep pockets, the tobacco industry made peace with its enemies.

It was an easy choice considering the alternative was to be destroyed by government. Consider that in 1964 Big Tobacco was required by government to put warning labels on its product telling people cigarettes would be bad for them if they chose to smoke. Next, it was forbidden by government from advertising its legal product on TV. The last TV ad for cigarettes appeared on The Tonight Show on 1/1/71 Later still, it was forbidden to even market tobacco in and to certain segments of the population. Joe Camel and Winston’s 31 year history with NASCAR both withered and died. Government is still gunning for the tobacco Industry. Just in the last year, government has outlawed smoking in public places such as restaurants and stores here in Tennessee and elsewhere.

However, the unquestionable high point of government’s offensive against Big Tobacco arrived November 23, 1998. The end results of Big Tobacco’s product in the lives of willing and informed consumers was deemed so detrimental to the well being of the states that the industry itself was held accountable for the havoc their product wrought. Big tobacco was required to pay almost $250 billion to the states over 25 years in a settlement

…intended to cover past Medicaid costs from smoking-related illnesses in exchange for immunity for the tobacco companies from further state- sponsored lawsuits.

[Read more →]

There are 3 House bills which are important to parents rights this week. The information for both came from Bobbie Patray (TFRW Legislative/Research Chairman). Remember at election time that a vote for a Democrat (any Democrat) running for the TN House is a vote for the continuing reign of House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh. Naifeh is an open border nanny state demagogue who has controlled this state for too long.

The first is TN HB1652 (Education, State Board of - Authorizes board of education to develop model grading policy - Amernds TCA Title 49):

Go to Bear Creek Ledger to read more…..

Technorati Tags: TN HB1652, TN HB3161, TN SB3419, TN SB0611, TN HB0653, TN Parental Rights, TN High School Diplomas, Home Schooling, TN Omnibus Lottery Scholarship Bill, Jimmy Naifeh’s Nanny State

I want to commend Justice Barker for his years of service on the bench.   I have admired him for some time as continue