Since 2007, when Tennessee was recognized as the worst state in America in terms of aligning its K-12 academic standards with national expectations, we have made remarkable progress in student achievement. Under both Democratic and Republican governors, the Volunteer State has been turning the heads of public education leaders across the country.
Despite the unwelcomed recognition, Tennessee was typical of the vast majority of states that basically wrote and graded their own tests when it came to describing the effectiveness of their education programs. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, representing major employers in commerce, finance and industry, blew the whistle on the fallacy of this self-referenced grading system where every state was, like all the kids in Lake Wobegone, "above average."
Thankfully, our state has enjoyed enlightened, progressive leadership at the top, including notably former Gov. Phil Bredesen and incumbent Gov. Bill Haslam. 
But let’s not get carried away in our enthusiasm.  Some Tennessee lawmakers persist in the mind-bending conviction we can weaken or eliminate academic standards and still hold school systems accountable when they fail to measure up to, shall we say, standards.
To many conservatives, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are anathema. Some tea party politicians and right-wing media pundits insist (falsely) that these objective benchmarks for what students should know at certain grade levels were devised and imposed on America by a sinister, arrogant and much-smarter-than-thou Washington bureaucracy. 
In reality, the CCSS was developed by the nation’s governors in consultation with employers and professional educators. After the initial rush to embrace Common Core, some conservative-led states, including Tennessee, are backpedaling.
In other words, let’s just trim our sails and lower our expectations. It’s another way of saying our kids aren’t smart enough to compete with the kids from other states and our teachers are of lower quality than teachers anywhere else.
In the heat of the battle against real, solid academic standards, some legislative weirdness has surfaced in Tennessee House Bill 0758/Senate Bill 0526.
In a certain sense, this legislation has merit in that it would focus greater accountability on the K-12 systems in preparing their graduates for the rigors of post-secondary education.  If a local school system graduated students who required remedial courses in college, the tuition for those courses would be charged to the district that presumably failed to educate its students sufficiently.  Supposedly, the economic penalty would force the K-12 programs to do better work.
But the bill simple-mindedly assumes all kindergarten pupils arrive on the first day at school with intellectual, social and economic equality.  It also ignores the fact “life happens,” and many capable, motivated students hit roadblocks and detours in their school experience. The legislation allows no room for differences in individual attainment: while some high school graduates may be deficient in language arts, they may excel in math and science.
Aside from the unpredictable financial risk to local school districts, the legislation represents just one more assault on the system of locally governed, community-accountable education. In publicizing the remedial education charge-backs to counties and cities, the measure would achieve its stealthy intent: undermining the credibility of public schools, their teachers and their successes.
And who benefits when confidence in public education is eroded?  Who else, but the profit-centered, tax-grabbing education corporatists?
Bill Zechman is a member of the Warren County Board of Education.