UPDATE: Tennessee Homeschool Laws

Today, I will offer many prayers of Thanksgiving to the Lord for hearing our prayers !! I will continue to pray about this issue (the diploma bill), and to lift up those in our Legislature who are involved in our law-making process.

FROM: Claiborne Thornton, Pres. THEA

Greetings, TN Home Schoolers,

Thank you for all your prayers and calls concerning HB1652, the diploma bill. Here is where we stand today: HB1652 passed the House Education Committee as we wanted it and without the DOE amendment about 6:00 pm Monday evening.

Now it must go to Calendar and Rules. Four Ed. Comm. members are on Calendar and Rules. All four voted against the bill. No one who voted for HB1652 is on Calendar and Rules.

Please continue to pray. It is now out of our hands. We pray for this bill to pass out of the Calendar Committee and on to the Floor for a whole House vote next week. The Calendar and Rules Committee can still kill the bill by causing it not to be brought to the Floor.

Thanks for all the calls, emails, and especially prayer. The extended discussion in Monday's Ed. Comm. meeting was difficult and clearly prayer is important covering matters such as this.

Again thanks for your diligent work.

In Christ,
Claiborne Thornton
Pres. THEA

And this update came from HSLDA:

May 6, 2008

Tennessee: Update on Diploma Bill

Dear HSLDA Members and Friends:

Good news! By a vote of 9 to 7, House Bill 1652 passed the House Education Committee yesterday with Representative Bell's favorable amendment and without the Department of Education's unfavorable amendment. In fact, the Department of Education decided not to even offer its amendment which would have required parents teaching at the high school level to have a bachelor's degree. As the bill is now written, it would simply require the state to recognize high school diplomas from church-related schools and homeschools.

The bill now goes to the House Calendar and Rules Committee for further consideration. Representative Bell has recommended that homeschoolers not contact members of this committee at this time. If this committee gives the bill a favorable vote, it will then move to the full House of Representatives for a vote.

Thank you for responding with your calls and emails yesterday. They made the difference in the action taken on this bill!

Sincerely,
Dewitt T. Black, III
HSLDA Senior Counsel