The Choice Channel

“Home-schooled students and their parents, along with private school pupils, flooded the halls of the General Assembly on Wednesday to oppose legislation that would impose public school testing requirements on all school-age children. A bill from state Rep. G. A. Hardaway, a Memphis Democrat, would expand state-required standardized testing. Hardaway requested a three-week delay, saying he needed to work further on the legislation. He said he was concerned about measuring student performance across the state. ‘I want to allay any fears that the committee or the attendees may have that I’m out to get the home-schoolers or the independent schools,’ he said at a hearing during which children sat cross-legged in a carpeted center aisle and on their parents’ laps.” (02/28/08)