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LEGAL/LEGISLATIVE UPDATES
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ACROSS THE STATES
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Testing bills defeated
Two bills introduced in the Tennessee General Assembly extending tests for public school students to non-public school students, including those in homeschools, have been stopped from becoming law. House Bill 2163 (sponsored by Representative Mike Turner) and Senate Bill 2157 (sponsored by Senator Roscoe Dixon) would have required all non-public school students to take the Gateway end-of-course tests in order to graduate from high school. Since homeschools in Tennessee are included in the definition of a non-public school, homeschool students would have been required to take these tests as well. Because the Gateway tests are developed from the public school curriculum, the bills would have effectively required parents to conform their homeschool curriculum to the course content of subjects taught in public school.
In addition, the legislation would have resulted in a violation of federal law. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, signed by President Bush on January 8, 2002, requires states to test public school students in mathematics, reading or language arts, and science at certain grade levels in order to measure their performance according to state academic content and achievement standards. However, Home School Legal Defense Association added to this federal law a provision specifically excluding homeschools from the testing requirement. Not only would enactment of the Tennessee bills have been a violation of federal law, but this state legislation would have resulted in the loss of federal education funds in Tennessee.
When notified of the filing of HB 2163 and SB 2157, HSLDA sent out e-lerts to our member families, urging them to contact the bills' sponsors as well as their own senators and representatives to express their opposition to these testing proposals. Thanks to the strong response from homeschooling families across Tennessee and the effective lobbying efforts of the Tennessee Home Educators Association, Representative Turner agreed to withdraw his bill from further consideration, and Senator Dixon decided not to pursue passage of the senate version. Tennessee families can now continue homeschooling without further restrictions—always bearing in mind that an attack on homeschool freedom can come without warning at any time.
— by Dewitt T. Black
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