Book and Movie Checkout

A small library of books and videos are available for checkout in the Mothers’ Room. Books relating to family life, spirituality, and education, and videos for children may be checked out by parents by signing out the various titles on the list provided. It is very important that you include your email address or phone number so that a reminder may be sent if items remain unreturned.

Library at First Cumberland Presbyterian Church

Have you been saving your books and tapes, and didn't know what to do with them?

We will be putting books (children's and Christian fiction), videos, and DVDs together for our library. Can you look through your stuff and bring anything you might want to donate to Dawn Beckmann in the break room Thursday morning? Time to pass along all of our books we have already read. You can call Dawn at 919-6068 if you have any questions. Thanks!

Legislation Impacting Home Schoolers in Tennessee

Update on HB1652

From THEA at President@tnhea.org 

Hello Tennessee Homeschoolers, (Please forward to your e-mail lists and support groups)

Today, Wednesday, May 14th, Representative Mike Bell decided to take HB 1652 "off notice" which means that he decided to kill the bill for this year, for this session. (The TN General Assembly meets in two year sessions. If the legislators can complete their business as they intend to this week, then the 105th General Assembly will have ended.)

Next January the 106th General Assembly will begin. It will last through the Spring of 2009 & begin again in January 2010 and will conclude in the Spring of 2010.

Yesterday, the companion Senate bill, SB 1827, was put in the General Sub Committee of the Senate Education Committee. This is a way to table and kill the bill. This meant that the bill was dead in the Senate for this session.

As a result there were meetings with the Department of Education, Senator Dewayne Bunch, sponsor of SB 1827, Senator Jamie Woodson, Chairman of the Senate Education Committee, and Bruce Opie of the DOE. These are the meeting participants Rep. Bell informed us of, perhaps, there were others of whom we are unaware. He was not in attendance.

In this meeting it was discussed that since legislation had not passed to remedy the problem of the Category IV diplomas not being recognized by the POST, the TN Police Training organization, and by the Department of Human Services, which sets policy for hiring of day care workers, there would be a temporary remedy agreed upon. That remedy would be that on a case-by-case basis, individuals could request a review by these agencies when their diplomas were denied recognition, with the hope that the Category IV diplomas would be recognized by these agencies. This, again, would be the temporary solution until there could be a legislative remedy agreed upon, hopefully next year.

Upon learning of this, Rep. Mike Bell determined that the best step for him was to take HB 1652 "off notice" which means to take it off the Calendar & Rules Committee agenda so that it would not be heard, killing the bill in the House.

He intends to bring a new bill to the House Education Committee next year. He is already working on the strategy for this legislation. The bill would state that Category IV diplomas would be recognized by the state and their agencies, whether obtained by a full time, on campus, church-related school student, or a home schooler affiliated with a church-related school, when the student makes a score of 16 on the ACT.

Taking the ACT and making a 16 is about the equivalent of a "C" grade and is the accepted ACT score for admission in many colleges, including student athletes in the UT system. Rep. Bell thinks that this score could be used as a way to validate the student's high school education and thereby validate their Category IV diploma. In discussion with the DOE, with fellow House members and others, he has had very positive response to this strategy.

So at this point, we will take up this effort again next year. Thank you to all of you who made calls, wrote e-mails, came to the House Education Committee hearing, prayed and worked that this legislation would pass. We will work again to bring a lasting remedy to this serious problem.

Meanwhile, if you have difficulty with your Category IV diploma, difficulty with getting a job because of a Category IV diploma, we ask that you contact THEA at President@tnhea.org  or call at (888) 854-3407 and Rep. Mike Bell at rep.mike.bell@legislature.state.tn.us  or call him at 615-741-1946.

Blessings to you all,
The Thorntons

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