Interesting news out of Louisiana. From an article by Jan Moller in the Times-Picayune comes news that:

A bill that would give home-school diplomas the same weight as high school degrees earned by private-school students is nearing final passage in the Legislature after a House committee gave its unanimous endorsement on Tuesday.

Republican Louisiana state senator Mike Walsworth was apparently inspired to create the bill after one of his constituents applied for a job in the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and was declared ineligible for a position because he didn’t have a regular high school diploma.

The “same weight” is a little vague, however. There’s no guarantee that Louisiana college admissions offices, for instance, will look upon the students in a roughly equivalent way. It perhaps makes sense to think that home-schooled students essentially earned a high diploma, but it’s really hard to tell what they’ve accomplished in an education environment essentially devoid of competition.

Daniel Luzer

Daniel Luzer is the news editor at Governing Magazine and former web editor of the Washington Monthly. Find him on Twitter: @Daniel_Luzer