A police officer received a perfect 4.0 average at the police academy, but has lost his certification because he received a category IV high school diploma. (A Category IV high school diploma is awarded to private church schools and homeschoolers). Four childcare workers also lost their jobs due to having a category IV diploma. (Lifesitenews.com) This means that even homeschoolers with accredited diplomas in Tennessee will not be eligible for state jobs.
A recent blog at StoptheACLU.com states that Tennessee only wants to hire the dumbest kids for state jobs. The article continues to say,
“It has come to pass that the State of Tennessee has officially invalidated the high school diplomas of thousands of home-schooled Tennessee kids, at least where it concerns their eligibility to apply for the positions of fireman, police officer, state government employee, even daycare worker — any government job or government controlled position that the state regulates is covered.”
The state’s excuse is that it has no control over the curriculum of homeschool or private school students.
Based on these stories and many others that are coming to light, Tennessee has joined California in an effort to squash homeschooling. This is a sad affair. States are denying themselves the resources of highly intelligent people who are more than capable of doing their jobs. Homeschoolers are losing their desire to take their education and creativity and paying it back to the community from which they came.
What this is NOT going to do is stop the spread of homeschooling. If these measures have any success at all, these measures will cause homeschoolers to build their own businesses and opportunities and leave the public service jobs to people who have done exactly what the governments told them to do. The saddest part is that the governments will have no idea what they have lost.
I have to wonder if Tennessee’s next step is to try to push home schooled kids into the K12 Virtual Academy curriculum so they can have more control of students who want to homeschool yet be eligible for state jobs?
*Have a question about homeschooling? Just ask.
* Have you seen the homeschooling curriculum glossary?