TN Board of Ed: Please, No Competition!

I am not making this up.

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.

The Board's logic? "We don't know what home-schooled kids learned."

Well, according to RedState, we DO know a few comparative figures (from 1998.)

In the year homeschoolers averaged 22.8 and the national average was 21.0, Tennessee's students scored just 19.8, a full 3 points below home schoolers. This put Tennessee ahead of only North and South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana and Washington DC. (Note: Louisiana recently began a 'no-holds-barred' school choice program. Most likely TN will slip another notch in the very near future.)

Hell, Gomer, I can figure this out. The TN Board is trying not to be totally embarrassed.