Homeschoolers busied themselves to support Jeff, the vice president of CSTHEA, who has been on the board since 1992. He is the father of four children, ages 17 to 22.

He has for years tirelessly led the homeschool mock trial team, and attended to matters of oversight of our association.

In his practice Jeff specializes in defending cities and towns against litigation and also is vigilant in area cases involving home education.

“He is a man of integrity, a man of principle and a man of zeal,” said Gary Hargraves, CSTHEA president. “And these in boundless quantities. He’s traveled the state helping homeschoolers having troubles with state and local government, usually without charging for his services. And not just homeschoolers, but church-related schools that umbrella them, too.

“You don’t have to say he cares about people; he shows it, and on a frequent basis. I can’t say enough about Jeff, especially when it comes to fighting for our rights, and things that matter — Jeff is always ready to fight those battles.”

If everyone were as active on homescholing issues as Jeff is, Gary adds, there would be “phenomonal changes” across the board in the country.

Jeff is a deacon at Oakwood Baptist church and is involved in Awana youth ministries.

Chancery court is an important court in what is called equity jurisdiction; it has a high calling to deliver justice between disputants and bring peace to the realm. Chancery has a largely Christian origin in 14th century England, and has been called a felicitous development of western law.

An essay about the exciting basis of Chancery Court appears at the homeschooler-run website, http://abortionchattanooga.com/gods-wise-laws/the-conscience-of-the-king/.

There was much mingling of the two groups — one set endorsing fee market education and homeschooling and seeking goodwill among state elected officials, the other opposing another federal imposition on a huge sector of the American economy. With little doubt homeschoolers feel as offended by a further takeover of U.S. health care as the Tea Party activists and others who organized the protest.

Our objections to Obamacare start with our convictions about God and the ideas of sphere sovereignty and limited duty that He assigns the civil magistrate. Our disdain flows onward into the economic and the political. The touchstones of our ideas are the benefits of limited government, the right to contract, constitutional restraint of power and the liberty that surges whenever bureaucracy is cut or eliminated and law constrained in its scope.

Homeschoolers are largely motivated by a love for God and a desire to obey His commandments in the upbringing of their children. Their premise of obedience to God puts children in the loving care of parents and family and leaves little room for the factory school run by the state. By nature homeschoolers love their independence from state “oversight,” even if it keeps them from accepting the state tuition freebie (plus bus service). By God’s grace, homeschoolers view the administration of coercion, taxation, surveillance, systematization and standardization in the educational realm as a judgment, a curse the effects of which are to be avoided as God in His providence allows. They have asserted their rights in court and in general assemblies, and in the U.S. have won an important measure of liberty. But we must recognize the strong hand of judgment against a people who hear Jesus say, “If you love me, keep My commandments,” but who breezily believe these commandments impose no personal nor public particulars.

A whole matrix of U.S. programs exist to sap our love for God and to tempt us to yield to the commands and supply of men. Social Security tempts the Christian to rely on the state for the care of elderly parents. Public schools tempt the Christian to rely on the state for the training in obedience and righteousness of the young. FDIC tempts the Christian to rely on Uncle for the safe keeping of assets at bank companies that are definitionally and perpetually insolvent. Safety bureaucracies and insurance tempt the Christian to rely on the payments of third parties to cover costs associated with accident or illness. Public health bureaucracies tempt the Christian to distrust his neighborly farmer and believe that supplements and medicines are safe only if approved in advance by big industry-captive regulators. Obamacare, like unto these, tempts us to jettison health care and the payment of it onto an anarchy of civil authority and corporations. It tempts us to care not as we ought, but unto an alien providence. Its 150 agencies will pull us away from personal relationships (as with God) and direct us into impersonal relationships where covetousness and self-seeking are encouraged and every dealing becomes a conflict with other noisy claimants (as in hell). The Bible envisions a decentralized society, Obama a centralized one. —DJT

State-licensed day care centers and police departments had turned up their noses at the qualifications of several homeschool grads, claiming they hadn’t really graduated from high school because they had their credentials from an umbrella school.

Gov. Phil Bredesen signed the bill to end this unfavorable trend.

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Mike Bell, a homeschool dad who got his start in the affairs of the state legislature by being engaged as a lobbyist for THEA.

We should praise God that the law has been altered to give this largely Christian group of families the credit that the marketplace is already given to their graduating children.

Here is the bulk of the language of the less-than-one-page piece of legislation passed by both houses of the General Assembly:

Section 1-3-1__. Notwithstanding any rule, regulation, or other provision of law to the contrary, a high school diploma awarded by a school as defined by Section 49-50- 801 or Section 49-6-3050 in recognition of completion of secondary educational requirements shall be considered by all departments, agencies, commissions or other such entities of state and local government as having all the rights and privileges of a high school diploma awarded by a public school system. This section shall not apply to state lottery proceeds as provided in title 49, chapter 4, part 9.
SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.

The bill that passed the Senate and House Schools requires that diplomas issued by homeschools be recognized by all state and local governmental entities as having the same rights and privileges of diplomas issued by public school systems.

Background: Despite the fact that home schooled students are being accepted in colleges and universities all across the nation as well as being recruited by Ivy League schools, it was learned a couple of years ago that some entities here in Tennessee that require a high school diploma to work decided that home schooled students from a “Category IV” schools did not meet that criteria. This decision affected day care workers and potential law enforcement recruits among others. Since the state recognizes and authorizes this kind of education, it is only just that diplomas from these schools be recognized. An effort to fix this problem failed last year. SB 433 was on the Senate floor May 4 where is passed 30-0. Sen. Sen. Andy Berke and House Speaker Ron Ramsey were among them.

HB 431 sponsored by homeschool dad repl Mike Bell (R-Riceville) was on the House floor Thursday morning. You would have been so proud of prime sponsor Mike Bill as he stood at the lectern at the front of the House floor for an hour and 40 minutes defending this ground-breaking piece of legislation. Mike did an outstanding job as he was peppered with questions, some that didn’t have anything to do with the bill. This was such a picture of “grace under fire,” that when the bill finally passed, he received a well-deserved round of applause.

In the end this bill passed Ayes 61, Nays 27. There was a minor change requiring it to go back to the Senate for a concurring vote Monday (May 11), but no problem is expected. Here’s the coverage in the Tennessean.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090508/NEWS0201/905080380/Bill+orders+equality+for+home-school+diplomas

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

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is a major threat to parents’ freedom to raise their children as they believe best — to teach them their religious faith, to discipline them in a Biblical manner, to manage their health care, and much more. Support for a Parental Rights Amendment to the federal constitution is an important way to stop this threat.

Many leaders in the new Administration and Congress support the UNCRC, including Hillary Clinton (nominated for Secretary of State) and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. Godly parents need to unite to protect our rights from this attack, and <www.ParentalRights.org> offers an important way we can help prevent adoption of the UNCRC by the federal government.

10 things you need to know about the structure of the CRC

• It is a treaty which creates binding rules of law. It is no mere statement of altruism.
• Its effect would be binding on American families, courts, and policy-makers.
• Children of other nations would not be impacted in any direct way by our ratification.
• The CRC would automatically override almost all American laws on children and families because of our supremacy clause.
• The CRC has some elements that are self-executing, while others would require implementing legislation. Federal courts would have the power to determine which provisions were self-executing.
• The courts would have the power to directly enforce the provisions that are self-executing.
• Congress would have the power to directly legislate on all subjects necessary to comply with the treaty. This would constitute the most massive shift of power from the states to the federal government in American history.
• A committee of 18 experts from other nations, sitting in Geneva, has the authority to issue official interpretations of the treaty which are entitled to binding weight in American courts and legislatures. This effectively transfers ultimate authority for all policies in this area to this foreign committee.
• Under international law, a treaty overrides even our Constitution.
• Reservations, declarations, or understandings intended to modify our duty to comply with this treaty will be void if they are determined to be inconsistent with the object and purpose of the treaty.

10 things you need to know about the substance of the CRC

• Parents would no longer be able to administer reasonable spankings to their children.
• A murderer aged 17 years, 11 months and 29 days at the time of his crime could no longer be sentenced to life in prison.
• Children would have the ability to choose their own religion while parents would only have the authority to give their children advice about religion.
• The best interest of the child principle would give the government the ability to override every decision made by every parent if a government worker disagreed with the parent’s decision.
• A child’s “right to be heard” would allow him (or her) to seek governmental review of every parental decision with which the child disagreed.
• According to existing interpretation, it would be illegal for a nation to spend more on national defense than it does on children’s welfare.
• Children would acquire a legally enforceable right to leisure.
• Teaching children about Christianity in schools has been held to be out of compliance with the CRC.
• Allowing parents to opt their children out of sex education has been held to be out of compliance with the CRC.
• Children would have the right to reproductive health information and services, including abortions, without parental knowledge or consent.

An important step toward preventing adoption of the UNCRC is to pass the Parental Rights Amendment to the federal constitution being prepared for introduction in Congress.

Amendment’s Proposed Text

Section 1

The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is a fundamental right.

Section 2

Neither the United States nor any state shall infringe upon this right without demonstrating that its governmental interest as applied to the person is of the highest order and not otherwise served.

Section 3

No treaty nor any source of international law may be employed to supersede, modify, interpret, or apply to the rights guaranteed by this article.

Action Step

Please go to https://www.parentalrights.org/petition and sign the petition for the adoption of the Parental Rights Amendment to the Constitution.

Pass this information on to friends and encourage them to do the same.

“It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.” —Psalm 118:8, 9

By David Tulis

As a homeschool mom or dad, you are in a position to understand the economic collapse on Wall Street better than many people.

Just look at the path your life has taken.

A drama similar to Wall Street’s played out in the narrative of your marriage and the arrival of your first child. From early on you had expressed an unwillingness to follow the herd. With fear of God in your hearts, you both clambered to a piece of high ground from which to see a broad prospect.

From the vantage point you saw two courses of action. To the right, a difficult, narrow path, that of faithful obedience to God. To the left, a broad highway. You chose the right way, the narrow one. You wanted to be a homeschool mom because you had read about public schools and the way in which they inspire atheism, moral relativism and intellectual stultification.

There stood the public school, on the side of the broad highway filled with your neighbors, town leaders and pew sharers at church, all of whom endorsed it. The structure stood immoveable, its red brick catching the evening sunlight, winning but somehow unreal; you picture it in your mind with images from the small public school near your first house, and borrowed your childhood experiences as a public gradeschool pupil..

While your children were still tots, or maybe a little older, you and your husband elected to homeschool — to take the educational path that is individual, personal, free market-oriented and Christian.

You decided to avoid the corporate structure of the public school, its mass functions and factory orientation, its delegation to unseen experts and advisers and faraway specialized nonprofit groups which suggest those incessant “reforms” you read about on Metro page; you avoided its surveillance, its immunization rules, its propaganda for the political and religious status quo.

You avoided the great promises it makes about a solid return on your investment. You ignored the fact that you could become a shareholder at no cost to you — it was free. The benefits suggested in the prospectus for this house of public education were many — could you not, as a consumer of these free services — find employment to increase the family income and create a better inheritance for your children? Could you not take advantage of the system to “find yourself” and develop the true you?

The turn of mind which led you to refuse this free public benefit is the same which caused the great panic of 2008. Confidence. Or lack of it The great crash of Black September and a federal “rescue” that will torment our country for the next 75 years was a panic. The crisis was a run on the bank, a dash to safety.

Investors darted quickly starting Sept. 15, selling stocks in questionable corporations and banks and buying assets they deemed safer. They abandoned the fabled houses of finance that had peddled investments and securities as safe, which were in fact of unknown value or worthless. They dumped at discount.

The great concern as Esprit goes to press is whether this tangible fear will spread from the big investment houses and retirement funds down to Main Street and the retail investor — that is, you and your family.

Will you sit tight? Will you, the small stockholder and mutual fund member, remain confident in the system? Will the federal rescue announced Sept. 19 satisfy you that your money is safe?

If the common person is not reassured by the federal decapitation and takeover of the entire top of the official and corporate economy, he too will bail out.

If 1 percent of American investors bail out of their banks, the entire system could collapse, as the banking sector is leveraged to the gills and has no liquid base. For years I have heard from The Moneychanger newsletter and other publications just how leveraged the banking system is. (It violates the 8th commandment against theft and the 9th commandment on false representation.) The guarantor of banks, the FDIC, is bankrupt, too, intending to petition Congress for cash and more taxing authority on the banking industry.

There has been a run on the bank nationally that has wiped out big financial houses. If there is a run on the bank at the consumer level, the system could be on its knees. The “cascading defaults” that Alan Greenspan warned about could become a reality. They’ve already started; will political intervention halt it.

But you already know about such things.

There already has been a run on the bank.

That is — the bank of the American public school.

You and your family bailed out, sought safety. Lacking confidence that the institution which everyone trusted, you went to the teller, as it were, and withdrew your money.

Rather than relying on the big houses of American education to make you prosper, you said, “No, I think we can do better at home, without all the experts and academicians and studies and think tank analyses. I am not confident in you.”

I want to ask you a question in light of your previous bold steps to separate yourself from big institutions with your human capital.

Do you trust the people in New York and Washington who have bailed out giant corporations and promised to saddle you with “hundreds of billions” in obligations, according to Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, for the greater good? Do you trust the corporations that are keeping your savings or your deposits?

If you trust them — and everybody else does, too, simultaneously — then that financial company will surely be there when business opens following the coming weekend (assuming the tumult continues into the new month). But what if you’re wrong, and everybody else is right, and they get to the teller before you, what then?

The seemingly seamless apparatus of government and media worked in the last two weeks of September to avert a Main Street run on the bank. Is it working?

You distrusted the government in education. But maybe you can trust its representatives in the area of investing and savings and banking. Maybe. Trust your gut.

Whatever you do, you have to remember that God is sovereign over all things, and that He is just and righteous in His judgment — and his mercies.

http://www.tuliseditor.com/