Grad gift from Governor Bredesen

Gov. Phil Bredesen (D), who kept his cards close to the vest, signed the homeschool diploma bill this afternoon. HB0431/SB0433 was filibustered by the Democrats for nearly 2 hours two weeks ago as they fought tooth and nail to keep students with Category IV diplomas from getting jobs as police officers (despite getting their college degrees), or day care workers, auctioneers, hair dressers or pedorthists (among other jobs). I'm thankful to the Governor for not vetoing this and letting the community and the state to move on to more pressing issues.

Rep. Mike Bell (R-Riceville) and Sen. Dewayne Bunch (R-Cleveland) are to be highly commended for their efforts. Everyone wants qualified employees but to say that merely because the diploma didn't come from a public school they were unfit for the job was a stretch in the extreme. Former DOE employee Cindy Benefield started this mess nearly three years ago and it took a great deal of effort on the part of a lot of people to clean it up. This is a prime example of bureaucratic authority gone completely off the rails. I'm glad things have been set right.

This is a great graduation present for a lot of Tennessee's citizens.