The Tennessee ConserVOLiance

Near the beginning of The Declaration of Independence, these words appear.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among […]

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A friend sent me a link to an editorial from the Hartford (CT) Courant authored by Robert Satter. Mr. Satter is a judge trial referee in Hartford Superior Court and author of “Under the Gold Dome — An Insider’s Look at the Connecticut Legislature.” He is also, in my opinion, a very dangerous […]

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It sounds like something we should support. After all, who could be against “Fairness?”
But the surface appeal of The Fairness Doctrine has all of the rigor of a soap bubble and collapses under the slightest scrutiny.
Two powerful criticisms illustrate why The Fairness Doctrine is a bad idea.

It has a chilling effect on free speech. First […]

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Few things illustrate Democrat’s penchant for preying on people’s fears better than Social Security. Proposing changes to Social Security produces hysteria from any Democrat near a microphone. Barack Obama is no different as evidenced by his comments earlier this week.
Speaking to a crowd of retirees in Ohio,
Obama … criticized McCain for being open […]

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First a history lesson: In the last 100 years, there was only one two-year period, from 1969-1971, when the Tennessee House had a Republican Speaker. It happened in 1969, following the mandated 1-man,1-vote redistricting of the Tennessee Legislature (which reduced the disproportionate strength of the rural counties). After the turbulent 1968 elections, the defection of […]

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U.S. District Judge Robert L. Echols issued his ruling yesterday on the ACLU vs. Wilson County Schools (aka Lakeview Elementary). The Tennessean headlined their story this way:
Prayer group can’t get special access at school
Judge says Wilson public school supported religious activity
The ACLU, predictably , claimed victory. The Tennessean linked to Judge Echol’s 59 page MEMORANDUM, […]

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This is a tale of 54,041 high school diplomas. That’s the number of public high school diplomas awarded in Tennessee last year (2006-2007). There are 324 public high schools in Tennessee. The public high schools are operated by 119 public school systems. There are 137 public school systems in Tennessee, but only 119 of them […]

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The Tennessee Department of Education has recently defended its decision not to recognize homeschool diplomas with the assertion that because they were prohibited from having anything to do with the selection of a curriculum, teachers, or textbooks in the church-related schools which “umbrella” homeschoolers they had no way to tell what a homeschool diploma represented.
So, […]

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Since its favorable passage eight days ago by the House Education Committee, HB1652 (the bill to direct the Department of Education to resume recognizing homeschool and church-related school diplomas) has been languishing in the House Calendar & Rules Committee. This Committee is where all bills go when they receive committee approval. Calendar and Rules decides […]

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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 […]

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