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):

This is a brief history of the Category IV legislation about which we are asking you to call the House Ed. Committee members (see that list below).

On April 19th we received an e-mail from John Evans, Sr. that his policeman son, John Jr., a 2001 graduate of Gateway Christian School, was told he would lose his job as a policeman if he did not take and pass the GED within 90 days. Rep. Mike Bell found a bill to which he could attach an amendment requiring state agencies to recognize the diplomas of Category IV schools, schools such as Gateway, Aaron Academy, Family Christian Academy and others.

Reps. Mike Bell (R) and Dennis Ferguson (D), sponsor & co-sponsor of the Category IV bill, testified before the Higher Education sub-committee of the House Education Committee yesterday, Tuesday, April 29th. Mike told the sub-committee members that he has a very personal stake in this matter; his son who is now working towards certification as a fire-fighter is a graduate of a Category IV school and his daughter who is a high school senior will graduate in a few weeks with a Category IV diploma intending to attend a near-by Technical School after graduation.

Rep. Ferguson (the representative of Evans family) and Rep. Bell are both deeply distressed over the treatment of John Evans, 2001 graduate of a Category IV school who lives in Roane County (Ferguson’s district), graduate of Walter State Community College with a 4.0 GPA from the Police Academy, serving as a Police Officer since Jan. ‘08, now required to give up his cruiser work and take a desk job with all of his pending criminal arrests possibly invalidated, until he takes and passes the GED b/c the TN DOE says that his ‘01 Category IV high school diploma is invalid or “worthless”.

With discussion and supportive comments from many of the sub-committee members, including Les Winningham, (D), Chair of the House Ed. Comm., and Rep.Tommie Brown (D), the bill passed the sub-committee yesterday.

The Department of Education has just entered an amendment to this bill which will require all parents teaching grades 9-12 (and all teachers in category IV schools teaching grades 9-12) to have a baccaluarreate degree from state accredited associations.
We Ask you to please call NOW to the House Education Committee members, then call your state representative, and ask them to support HB 1652 without the DOE amendment.

Thank you!!

Here is the amendment, HB 1652, which Mike Bell is sponsoring:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49, Chapter 1, Part 1, is amended by adding a new section thereto, as follows:
Section 49-1-1__. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, a student who has a diploma recognized under or awarded by § 49-50-801 or § 49-6-3050 shall be considered by all departments, agencies or entities of state government as possessing a valid high school diploma. 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.

HOUSE EDUCATION COMMITTEE MEMBERS

* Les Winningham, Chair
* Tommie Brown, Vice-Chair
* Joe Towns, Jr., Secretary

WEST TENNESSEE members:
Memphis members:
Joe Towns, Jr.(D), Secretary, [Dist. 84], 615-741-2189
Barbara Cooper, (D), [Dist.86], 615-741-4295
Ulysses Jones, (D), [Dist. 98], 615-741-4575
Larry Turner, (D) [Dist.85], 615-741-6954
Bartlett:
Jim Coley, (R), [Dist. 97], 615-741-8201
Ron Lollar, (R), [Dist. 99], 615-741-7084
Somerville:
Delores Gresham, (R), [Dist.94], 615-741-6890
Dresden:
Mark Maddox, (D), [Dist. 76], 615-741-7847

MIDDLE TENNESSEE members:
Huntsville: NE of Nashville:
Les Winningham, (D) Chairman, [Dist. 38], 615-741-6852
Portland: N of Nashville:
Mike McDonald, (D), [Dist. 44], 615-741-1980
Nashville/Brentwood:
Beth Harwell, (R), [Dist. 56], 615-741-0709
Pegram: SW of Nashville:
Phillip Johnson, (R), [Dist. 78], 615-741-7477
Murfreesboro:
John Hood, (D), [Dist. 48], 615-741-7849

EAST TENNESSEE members:
Livingston:
John Mark Windle, (D), [Dist. 41], 615-741-1260
Knoxville:
Harry Brooks, (R), [Dist. 19], 615-741-6879
Sevierville:
Richard Montgomery, (R), [Dist. 12], 615-741-5981
Chattanooga:
Tommie Brown, (D), Vice-Chairman, [Dist. 28], 615-741-4374
Gerald McCormick, (R), [Dist. 26], 615-741-2548

PROTECTING PARENTAL RIGHTS:

HB3161 by *DeBerry J. (SB3419 by *Johnson, *Black, *Finney R.)

Requires childcare agencies to obtain parental consent before engaging in personal safety instruction related to the prevention of child sexual abuse.

As amended, gives broad latitude to child care providers to choose terminology and instructional methods and provides that any personal safety curriculum which will be implemented by a child care provider must be made available so parents and legal guardians have the opportunity to review it, etc.

ACTION: It has already passed the Senate and is scheduled for a House floor vote on Tuesday. Contact your House member and urge him or her to support this proposal.

OMNIBUS LOTTERY SCHOLARSHIP BILL:

SB0611 by *Woodson, *Bunch. (HB0653 by *Winningham, and others)

Makes changes to eligibility requirements for HOPE scholarships, ASPIRE awards, HOPE access grants, and HOPE scholarships for nontraditional students; clarifies amount of award under HOPE foster child tuition grant; sets amount of HOPE scholarship for 2007-2008 at $4,000 at four-year institutions and $2,000 at two-year institutions and amount of Wilder-Naifeh technical skills grant for 2007-2008 at $2,000

The debate over Lottery scholarship changes continues. SB0611 is in Senate Finance and HB0653 is in House Education awaiting further action.

REDUCING GPA FOR SCHOLARSHIP — Lawmakers discussing proposals to lower the cumulative grade point average needed to keep a lottery-funded scholarship say they hope funding board numbers to be released this week will help them decide which one is the most feasible. Under current rules, a student must be enrolled full time in college, have a GPA of at least 2.75 after the freshman year and a cumulative 3.0 GPA for subsequent years to keep the merit-based HOPE scholarship Many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and Gov. Phil Bredesen believe reducing the required cumulative GPA to 2.75 would allow more students to keep the scholarships — and stay in school to finish their degrees. However, the issue is choosing the least expensive proposal to do that in a tight budget year. Bredesen announced last week that as much as $500 million may have to be cut out of the upcoming state spending plan amid worsening tax revenue projections. http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080428/NEWS0201/804280354

Relating to the Parental Rights bill, I had posted previously on this although it was a different bill number. The TN Democrat controlled House believes government is the better parent than the actual parents.

To check on the schedule for these bills or to watch the streaming video:

Go to http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/
On the left sidebar click on Senate, then click on Video Streaming, then click on Senate Schedule or Joint Schedule. The same schedule can be found for the House by clicking on the House on the left sidebar.

UPDATE (May 7th): Step one in the process to fight back the Dept of Education of invalidating Cat IV School High School Diplomas was successful. Mike Bell’s Amendment passed in the House Education Committee while the Dept of Education Amendment failed. The Memphis contingent tried to steam roll the DOE’s amendment through committee but failed. There’s still a ways to go on this amendment although I’d guess this will pass through the Senate Education Committee but there still the House floor and Senate floor and Gov Bredesen to sign the bill.

More information can be found at Red Hat Rob.

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