Tennessee Mandates Low Quality Graduates Be Employed Over Homeschool Graduates

Ken Marrero at "Blue Collar Muse" reports that

Recently, the Tennessee State Board of Education ruled diplomas issued to home-schooled students from religious based schools were invalid as proof of the successful completion of High School should it be presented for employment purposes for a job for which state law requires a diploma. You read that right. According to the State Board of Education, all diplomas are equal but some diplomas are more equal than others.

According to Tennessee ConserVOLiance blogger Red Hat Rob,

… anyone from a public school (or a private accredited school) who presents a diploma in order to be hired as a daycare worker, police officer, fireman (or any other position which state law requires a high school diploma for) will be automatically accepted. Anyone who presents a homeschool diploma will be
automatically rejected . . . [Read More]

ARRA Editor Comments: Being from a neighboring state, I wonder what the legal basis was for the Tennessee State Board of Education (TSBE) to dictate to other agencies that they must only accept their potentially "inferior" highschool product. With homeschool graduates exceeding average national test scores of public high school graduates, one wonders if the TSBE is acting like a state funded "union" to control who can and cannot be employed.

Let consider some facts regarding the quality of students applying for the referenced Tennessee jobs . For the sake of the argument, these individuals have not gone on to college but are seeking employment based on their high school diploma. Well what about their classmates who decided to go to college. According to a 1995 report on Tennessee High School students entering college,

"29% of first-time first-year students enrolled in at least one remedial reading, writing, or mathematics course in fall 1995. . . . Tennessee’s higher education accountability document, 'Challenge 2000,' shows that 49.4% of first time freshmen at all public institutions took a remedial and developmental course. Examining just the four-year colleges and universities, the percentage taking any remedial and developmental in Tennessee decreases to 32.9%."

The data reflects that almost one-third (33%) of Tennessee high school students graduates who attend college in Tennessee are remediated. These "more qualified" students opted for college instead of applying for positions requiring only a high school diploma. If the food you eat was 33% defective or the products you buy were 33% defective, would you be concerned? At least at the college, those who are remediated are getting help. Now consider those who do not go on to college -- the TSBE public high school graduate who became your daycare worker, police officer, fireman, etc. Statistically those who opt not to go to college are in general less academically qualified than those who opted to try college. But TSBE wants Tennessee agencies and communities to accept (employ by fiat) their inferior quality public school graduates over homeschool graduates. Maybe the Tennessee State Board of Education should be liable for all future negative results that occur from the employment of mandated public high school students graduates. Also, maybe it is time for someone to sue the State of Tennessee over state mandated employment discrimination!

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