April 28, 2005

"Well, we don't do that to all of them."

Tennessee's only blogging state legislator, Rep. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, has an update on pre-k legislation and also his proposed "Students Bill of Rights." As to the latter, Campfield reports that at a committee heearing on that legislation today a representative from the state's higher education establishment, an opponent of the bill, inadvertently but effectively confirmed that the bill was, in fact, necessary.

He started out as expected by saying it's not needed, it's already covered, etc. When I asked about the weakness of it not being codified and the inability to enforce the rules with tenured professors, he agreed saying that the programs in place might affect just non-tenured teachers.

What happened next was very interesting. Unprompted, several other representatives from both sides of the political aisle started to talk about their own horror stories. And then they talked about stories told to them by their constituents years before I ever brought up this bill! Then probably most interesting of all to me, was one legislator told how he used to be a student government president and would have to deal with these complaints.

He told how most of the students were given the runaround and put off or brushed under the carpet. The Tennessee Higher Ed rep. said something to the effect of "well, we don't do that to all of them."

My jaw hit the floor. I chimed in that he was ADMITTING it does happen to SOME of them?!?! He replied "yes, but not many". I don't know what to say except thank you-he proved there is indeed a need for my bill. I answered a few more questions and then it was time to go.

Related Item:
Kay Brooks, a Tennessee homeschooling advocate and founder of TNHomeEd.com, has started a new blog dealing with Tennessee education issues. "I’m hoping to encourage parents across the state to become their own best advocates and supply some of the information and tools to get them started," Brooks said.