Tennessee politics

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Tennessee bureaucracy and the Nanny State

July 17, 2009 in Homeschooling, Tennessee politics by redhatrob | 1 comment

UPDATED!

Ms. Spears and I exchanged several email messages this morning (in my capacity as Vice President of the Tennessee Association of Church-Related Schools). I am happy to report that she has issued the following letter of clarification:

Dear Home School Parent:

It was brought to my attention that the letter sent out prior was misleading so I decided to send you the section of the law that pertains to the annual requirements of the home school parent so there would be no misunderstanding of what is expected.

In reference to section (2) (A) church related home school parents can disregard the notice mailed regarding the annual filing.

Parents who choose to independently home school are not required to personally report to the school board in person however I do like to meet my home school parents and provide them assistance as needed.  If you would like to personally bring your notice of intent to my office, I will gladly sit down with you.

If the student plans to re-enroll in the public school, the parent should provide at the time of the re-enrollment a copy of the transcript of subjects the student covered while being home schooled.

Sincerely,

Sharon Spears

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

Original Post follows:

There are some bureaucrats (aka educrats) who just can’t seem to grasp the idea that they are not in charge of ALL the children. Doesn’t matter what the law says, parents cannot be allowed to teach their own children un-supervised. They’re not professionals! How will we know if the children are being properly socialized?

Sharon Spears is the Attendance Supervisor for the Coffee County School System. The Coffee County seat is Manchester, 60 miles southeast of Nashville, halfway to Chattanooga, down I-24. Sharon Spears has been listed as the Attendance Supervisor since at least 2001. She’s also listed as the GED co-ordinator, she is in charge of Dropout Information, she is the Liason for Homeless Children. She is the contact person at the school system for issues relating to Juvenile Court and the Truancy Board. Perhaps she’s been too busy to ever learn what Tennessee law is concerning homeschooling. That would be kind of ironic, since her page on the Coffee County School System website has a link to the Tennessee Department of Education’s page on homeschooling where the law is clearly explained.

How do I know that she hasn’t learned the Tennessee law on homeschooling?

Here’s the text of a letter she sent to homeschooling families in Coffee County a few days ago:

(dated) July 15, 2009

To All Home School Parents:

The state requires all parents who plan to home school their children to register annually with their local school system. You will need to stop by the Coffee County Board of Education in the Administrative Plaza to complete the necessary paperwork.

If you were conducting an Independent Home School during the 2008-2009 school year, please, bring your attendance record and your child’s transcript/grades with you. The deadline for notification without penalty is September 1st.

If you have additional needs or questions, you can contact me at 931-723-5150. Thank you so much for your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
(signed)

Sharon Spears
Attendance Supervisor

This letter misrepresents the law in at least three very significant ways.

ONE: The State does NOT require ALL parents who wish to homeschool to register with their local school system. Parents have the CHOICE of signing up with their local school system OR with an umbrella school. If they sign up with an umbrella school, they are NOT required to sign up with the local school system.

TWO: Even Parents who have decided to homeschool AND register with the local school system do NOT have to “stop by the Coffee County Board of Education. . . to complete the necessary paperwork.” You may, and probably should file your notification by mail, with proof of delivery requested.

THREE: Parents signed up with the local school system do NOT have to supply their child’s transcript or grades to the school system. The only thing required to be reported to the local school system is attendance. And you don’t have to do it in person. Send in a calendar noting which days you conducted school with your children. Verify that the days total 180. Send it in.

Coffee County homeschoolers can safely ignore the arbitrary requirements of Ms. Spears’ letter. If you decide to homeschool and sign up with an umbrella school, you can ignore the Coffee County School System completely. If you choose to homeschool and sign up with the public school system, you can send your “notice of intent to homeschool” form in by mail. And you have no obligation to report to them anything other than your attendance records.

Ms. Spears should know better. She is attempting to require more than the law requires. She is attempting to force parents to submit records and information they are not required to submit.

She should know better. She’s been there for over eight years.

She should be ashamed of herself. However, when the misleading sections of her letter were pointed out to her, she promptly issued a “clarification document” which addressed each of these three issues and revised her requests to just those items required by state law.

And the director of schools for Coffee County, Kenny Casteel, should also be ashamed chagrined. You see, that same homeschooling law referred to on the Department of Education’s webpage contains this sentence:

“The director of schools or the director of schools’ designee shall ensure that attendance teachers are informed of parents’ rights to conduct a home school pursuant to § 49-6-3001(c)(4), subsection (a) of this section, and § 49-50-801 upon employment of such persons and at the beginning of each school year;”

They have no right to claim they didn’t know what the law said. The Director of Schools and the Attendance Supervisor have a legal obligation to make sure they understand the law and know what parents’ rights are.

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What’s good for the goose

June 17, 2009 in Tennessee politics by redhatrob | 2 comments

. . . is good for the gander?

BlueCollarMuse is reporting that a DEMOCRATIC staffer at the Tennessee State Legislature sent out an email with the subject line: Smiles for Monday that is, if anything, much more offensive than the email forwarded by the administrative assistant to Diane Black.

Head on over to his web site for the full details. He’s waiting to see if there will be the same firestorm of media coverage, calls for termination, denunciations, & disciplinary action against this DEMOCRATIC staffer as there was for Ms. Goforth.

This will be interesting to watch.

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Tennessee’s jihad against homeschoolers

April 29, 2009 in Homeschooling, Tennessee politics by redhatrob | No comments

The State of Tennessee’s jihad against homeschoolers continues.

It began in late 2007 and continued into 2008. An employee of the Department of Education, nominally in charge of the office of non-public schooling was criss-crossing the state making a presentation in which she declared that the diplomas issued by Tennessee’s church-related, category IV schools “were not worth the paper they were printed on.”

As a result of her presentations, other agencies and departments of the state began to reject diplomas issued to homeschoolers when a high school diploma was required by law for certain regulated categories of employment. At first it was the Tennessee Police Officer’s Standards and Training Board (POST) which refused to allow a homeschooled high school graduate to continue serving as a sheriff’s deputy, even though he had completed the police academy taught by Walter State Community College and already been hired by the sheriff’s department.

Then the Department of Children’s Services refused to allow a homeschooled high school graduate to continue to work in a daycare as a caregiver, because the law stipulated that a caregiver must hold a high school diploma recognized by the state of Tennessee.

Now comes word that just this past week the Tennessee Board of Cosmetology has refused to permit the licensing of a young women because her high school diploma is from a church-related category IV school.

Once again, it bears repeating: The State of Tennessee recognizes these diplomas for the awarding of HOPE lottery scholarships. The University of Tennessee and all of its campuses recognize these diplomas for purposes of admission to college. The state community college system recognizes these diplomas for the purpose of admission to a community college. Vanderbilt, Sewanee, Rhodes, King, Belmont, David Lipscomb, & Lee University all recognize these diplomas for admission to their college degree programs.

It is only the few state boards where the Department of Education has some influence that have rejected them. Homeschooled kids are smart enough to enlist in any branch of the armed services, attend any public or private university – but according to the state of Tennessee they are not qualified to work in a daycare, serve as a police officer, or dye someone’s hair.

Folks, this is outrageous. This is the petty tyranny of a unionized bureaucracy. The educrats cannot stand the fact that a few courageous families have said “no thank you” to the government-monopoly factory-model one-size-fits-all public school system. Perhaps they have been emboldened by the Obama administrations shut-down of the Washington DC voucher system. Who knows?

The Tennessee Legislature has the opportunity to correct this bureacratic jihad against homeschoolers. They can over-rule the Department of Education and restore some sanity to the state’s policy on education.

The Tennessee State Senate is scheduled to hear SB0433 this coming Monday, May 4th. Here’s the official summary of what that bill does:

“Schools, Home – As introduced, requires that diplomas issued by home schools be recognized by all state and local governmental entities as having the same rights and privileges of diplomas issued by public school systems. – Amends TCA Title 1, Chapter 3.”

Tennesseans, call your senators and urge them to vote for SB0433.

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Germany is reverting to paper ballots, but not Tennessee?

March 6, 2009 in Tennessee politics by redhatrob | No comments

The Germans are scrapping their voting machines because of concerns about the vulnerability to manipulation – and the inability of voters to verify that their vote was properly recorded. Story from the German Foreign Ministry in the US.

Ballot security is the cornerstone of free elections.

So why are State Sen. Ketron and State Rep. Todd sponsoring a bill to scrap the recently mandated return to paper ballots? See HB 0614 & SB 0872.

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Honk if you’re paying my mortgage!

February 26, 2009 in National Politics, Tennessee politics by redhatrob | No comments

Honk if you're paying my mortgage

bumper sticker from the Tennessee Republican Party

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Bredesen to HHS? Governor Ramsey? Senator Mumpower?

February 6, 2009 in National Politics, Tennessee politics by redhatrob | No comments

Time Magazine’s Mark Helperin reports “Tennessee Governor Bredesen in line to run HHS after talks with White House officials.”

h/t to AC Kleinheider, who is still skeptical.

Thinking ahead to the next moves on the chess board, this would make Ron Ramsey the new Governor of Tennessee.

The Tennessee Senate would then have to elect a new Lieutenant Governor.

There would also need to be a special election to fill Ramsey’s Senate seat.

Would Jason Mumpower run for the Tennessee Senate?

If he won, the Tennessee House would need to elect a new Majority leader.

AND… there would then have to be a special election to fill Mumpower’s House seat.

But perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself….

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Thanks, but no thanks – refusing the bailout?

February 3, 2009 in National Politics, Tennessee politics by redhatrob | No comments

Ken Marrero of Tennessee’s own BlueCollarMuse raises an intriguing idea. Should those who are opposed to the bailout refuse to take the funds?

According to Ken, “Haley Barbour is considering it for Mississippi. So is Mark Sanford in South Carolina.” Jason Mumpower, Republican Majority Leader in the Tennessee House says there are those in the legislature who are sympathetic to the idea.

Head on over to Ken’s post and read his full discussion.

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An inscribed copy of Dante’s Inferno for Rep. Kent Williams

January 14, 2009 in Tennessee politics by redhatrob | 3 comments

In Dante’s Inferno, the great Italian poet arranges the geography of hell in the form of nine concentric, descending circles. As you descend from circle to circle the severity of the sins being punished increases as does the gruesomeness of the punishments. Dante populates each level with figures from ancient history as well as his contemporaries in late medieval Italy. He thus goes considerably beyond any explicit biblical precept in creating a hierarchy of sin. He does not minimize any kind of sin, but he has clear and definite ideas about which sins are lesser and which sins are greater. Here’s a short summary of the nine circles of hell (according to Dante):

Circle One: virtuous pagans and unbelievers

Circle Two: the lustful

Circle Three: the gluttons

Circle Four: the greedy & the miserly

Circle Five: the wrathful

Circle Six: heretics

Circle Seven: the violent

Circle Eight: frauds

Circle Nine: traitors

Circle Nine is subdivided into four sub-rings: those who betrayed their kin; those who betrayed their city or country; those who betrayed their guests; and finally in the very pit of hell, those who betrayed their lords and benefactors – exemplified by Brutus and Cassius (who together betrayed Julius Caesar) and Judas who betrayed Jesus.

I plan on sending a copy of Dante’s Inferno to Rep. Kent Williams.

To paraphrase Patrick Henry, “Caesar had his Brutus, Charles I had his Cromwell, and Rep. Williams . . . may profit by their example.”

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Tennessee ACT Scores – State DOE still claiming credit for the scores of non-public school students

December 5, 2008 in Tennessee politics by redhatrob | No comments

The Public Schools’ average ACT score is a full point-and-a-half LESS than the Non-Public Schools. But the Department of Education won’t report that. In fact, the Tennessee Department of Education takes advantage of the higher ACT scores by Non-Public School students by falsely reporting the average score for ALL Tennessee students’ as if it were the average score for Public School Students.

On the 2008 TDOE Report Card, the Department reports both the 2007 and 2008 average composite ACT score as 20.7. But that’s NOT the average for Public School students in Tennessee. That’s the average for all 50,225 students who took the ACT test in 2008 (48,113 in 2007). And it overstates the average ACT score of Public School students by about a half a point.

The data reported by the ACT Corp. for Tennessee can be found here: http://www.act.org/news/data/08/pdf/states/Tennessee.pdf. Here’s an excerpt from the tables on page 9 of that report:

Here’s the misrepresentation by the Department:

In 2007, 35,715 Public School students took the ACT, with an average score of 20.3. In addition to those Public School students, 12,398 NON-Public School students also took the test, with an average score of 21.85. When you combine them with the public school students, it raises the state average from 20.3 to 20.7.

In 2008, 36,764 Public School students took the ACT, with an average score of 20.3. In addition to those Public School students, 13,461 NON-Public School students also took the test, with an average score of 21.79. When you combine them with the Public School students, it raises the overall state from 20.3 to 20.7.

The numbers and average scores for the Public School students are compiled from the Department’s own TVAAS system which gives results by school and by school system.

I have a full report (TN ACT Scores 2008.pdf) which pulls the data together and shows the average composite ACT score for all 119 school systems in Tennessee with high schools. Here’s a portion of the final page:

The report is an update to research I did last spring, during the furor over the Tennessee Department of Education’s arbitrary decision to reject homeschool diplomas for state regulated jobs in law enforcement and daycare. I was hoping to discover the average ACT score for Tennessee homeschool students so that I could compare it to the average ACT score for Tennessee public school students. Sadly, the ACT Corp. doesn’t report the homeschool scores separately for individual states.

The irony and outrage here is that the state Department of Education has the audacity to reject the high school diplomas issued by homeschools and church-related schools while at the same time using the higher ACT scores from those students to boost their own average.

The Tennessee legislature needs to take steps in 2009 to clearly adopt a policy that recognizes homeschool and church school diplomas and overturn the arrogant attacks by the Department of Education.

Rob Shearer, Vice President
Tennessee Association of Church-Related Schools (TACRS)

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Some common sense economic advice from the Sage of Mt. Juliet

September 30, 2008 in National Politics, Tennessee politics by redhatrob | 2 comments

A thoughtful community stalwart sent me the following in an email this morning. Mr. Fred Weyler of Mt. Juliet has the following observations:

______________________________________________________

My county trustee is raising my annual rent again. He says that my house is worth about four times what I paid for it. He also says that schools need 20% extra this year for school bus operation. I never had a school bus ride. I walked until I bought a bicycle. My classmates did, too. They had no obesity problems. It will take 14 of the 3 cent first class postage stamps I used to pay my first bills to send the trustee this year’s rent. The rent is higher despite my fixed income and my higher expenses, like more to fill my push mower than it cost to fill any of my first three cars. If I must sell my house to pay my bills, I face a capital gains tax even though my capital is now worth less.

Some people blame me, as a baby boomer, for wrecking Social Security. What a social circus! Twas not my choice, but FDR said I had to do it temporarily. Along the way, folks said I had to do it bigger and so did my employer. 16% of my pay would have made a huge IRA, but I had no choice. I could choose whether to pay big interest rates for a car and furniture or to walk a while longer and sleep on the floor until I could pay for furniture. Government knew that my retirement trust fund was more important than my start in this world. I sometimes worked two or three jobs to avoid big debt and big interest.

LBJ “borrowed” from my retirement trust fund to build housing in Chicago, Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga and elsewhere, but not in my small town. I watched as it was trashed, then as the bulldozers hauled it off or buried it. Community organizers and congress urged banks to finance housing for the next generation from LBJs projects. Do not ask about income, assets, or jobs the way my mortgager asked me. Banks blindly made loans which they and the borrower knew could not be repaid and had insufficient collateral. They did not pay and the banks have worthless paper instead of capital.

Now they tell me that it is my responsibility to help the banks get going again and to help those who did not pay to stay in their houses. Who’s telling me?

Those same people who told the banks to make those blind loans, who make bank rules, and under whose oversight the laws are administered. They are advised by some of those folks who made millions bringing financial institutions to their ruin.

I am incensed that they wanted to take my money, then if it got paid back, take 20% of it for organizations like ACORN. Are they not the outfit which set new records of multiple voter registrations, deceased voter registration, cartoon character voter registration, and canine voter registration to elect the yahoos who now want more of my money?

Why do I feel like I’d find joy if Franks, Dodd, Pelosi, Reid, Bush, and Paulson were impeached for malfeasance of duty?

I worked hard in college. I worked harder in high school. It paid off. With my savings and scholarship, my college job paid the rest and I did not graduate with huge debt. My dad helped me get my bicycle to campus. I rode the bus to get home occasionally. My professors walked from their houses to the classroom. Now there are parking lots where their houses were.

I’d say that the financial system needs some help. Some ways to give it:

  • First, do nothing until you put a stop to the practices which brought on this situation. No need to throw more good money after bad.
  • Lower the capital gains tax. Lower the corporate tax rate. Watch how much money comes out of the mattresses to ease the credit crunch.
  • Share oil revenues with the states to encourage new production and watch investment soar, new jobs, more tax revenue, improved balance of payments, and lower gasoline prices. Encourage new nuclear power plants and oil refineries. You cannot amend the law of supply and demand. Let it dictate when entrepreneurs have electric cards on the road with new jobs in fast battery swap out and recharge stations and more tax revenues.
  • Prosecute the bums who led institutions to ruin. Put all their assets back into the system.
  • Pay off the national debt to reduce the cost of capital.
  • Make FICA follow the same solvency rules as you enforce upon pension funds. Deposit that $50 trillion or whatever the number is into banks so that they may
  • lend some of it with ample oversight, transparency, accounting and regulation.
  • Divert some funds away from Dept of Education. Quit expanding high school parking lots. Put some lard buns to work digging up those global warming parking lots to make room for bike racks and more grass and trees.

- Fred Weyler, Mt. Juliet, Tennessee

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