Senate panel passes diploma bill
NASHVILLE, May 4 — Prospects are good for legislation that will require Tennessee government agencies to end discrimination against homeschoolers’ diplomas when they apply for employment.
Without fanfare Monday the Tennessee Senate Education Committee a bill which would require the recognition of Category IV school diplomas obtained by homeschoolers by governmental agencies. The bill passed by a vote of 6-0-2 (the last two voting present).
Homeschool father, Rep. Mike Bell presented the bill at the request of the Senate sponsor, Sen. Dewayne Bunch. Bruce Opie, legislative liaison for the DOE, answered questions representing the Department of Education, noting that they did not oppose the bill. Mr. Opie stated that if a school is not in one of the categories of DOE “approved” schools, those schools in Categories I, II, III, V, & VI, then the DOE would not “approve” the school’s diploma. This is a little confusing because he is not saying that the DOE would not recognize as valid diplomas those from Category IV schools. In fact, the bill requires the DOE to recognize as a valid diploma, the Cat. IV diploma.
The bill numbers are SB1913 and HB1418.
Category IV schools have never sought or requested the “approval” status from the DOE. Category IV schools are those schools which are recognized by the DOE, but choose to be exempted from DOE “approval”, because DOE “approval” status would require the schools to meet DOE requirements for the selection of their curriculum, textbooks and faculty. Most of the church-related schools which work with homeschoolers are Category IV schools and have chosen this category, a category created by the DOE, so they can function without DOE involvement in the selection of their faculty, textbooks and curriculum.
We want to emphasize this fact: Category IV schools are a legitimate category of school and have been” for many decades. The DOE created this category of school originally to allow for the existence of religious schools which did not want to the DOE to determine the requirements for the selection of their curriculum and faculty. For many, many years, for decades, there was never a problem with governmental agencies refusing to accept and recognize as valid the diplomas of Category IV schools.
This became a problem when recently the DOE decided to reinterpret their rules and influenced other departments of our state government to reject as invalid Category IV diplomas. The two agencies most active in rejecting Cat. IV diplomas were the Dept. of Human Services, overseeing day care centers and their employees and the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, POST, overseeing selection of police officers.
Homeschool students who had graduated from Category IV church-related schools umbrella programs were finding their diplomas rejected for employment in day care and by city and county police departments, though for previous decades these diplomas had never been rejected. Some who had already been hired by day care centers and police departments were forced to resign or to obtain a GED.
We fought this injustice with legislation last year also sponsored by Rep. Bell. This bill did not pass. Some of the homeschooled young people, graduates of Cat. IV schools, who were forced to resign their day care and police jobs because of this reinterpretation by the DOE, came to Nashville last spring to testify before the House Education Committee as the original bill was debated.
The bill will go to the Senate Calendar and Rules Committee and then before the full Senate, possibly on May 11.
It is the opinion of those watching this closely that the bill is headed to passing without our having to generate calls. However, if issues arise that necessitate calls, THEA will alert Chattanooga area homeschoolers immediately and ask them to call the officials from their own districts.
—Claiborne Thornton