Kevin Huffman, the TFA Commissioner of Education in Tennessee, demands that the Metro Nashville school board authorize a charter in an affluent section of town. The Arizona-based charter, called Great Hearts, expects parents to offer a cash gift of $1200-1500 at the beginning of the school year to defray various costs. The school board worries about lack of diversity and lack of transportation.
The board has rejected Great Hearts four times. Huffman is punishing Nashville by withholding $3.4 million in state aid. The Republican-controlled legislature has threatened to adopt vouchers because of the Nashville board’s insistence on a desegregated school.
As the following article shows, Huffman knows exactly what he is doing.
http://blogs.knoxnews.com/humphrey/2012/09/huffman-on-charter-schools-use.html
Huffman on Charter Schools Used for ‘Ghettoizing’
Long before he became Tennessee’s education commissioner, Kevin Huffman penned an article on charter schools that a reader points out as interesting in light of his recent decision to withhold $3.4 million from Nashville’s schools because the local school board rejected a Great Hearts Academy application.
A key reason for the Metro Nashville board’s rejection of Great Hearts application was concern that it would be lacking in diversity. Huffman’s 1998 article for the October, 1998, New York University Law Review focuses on the possibility of litigation over school choice legislation.
In doing so, Huffman observes that a charter school can be designed to effectively exclude enrollment of poor students, either by location, which without provisions for transportation restricts availability to those in the neighborhood, or by limiting dissemination of information on the schools to the children of “quick-acting, better-informed parents… leaving children of poor and ill-informed parents behind, consigned to suffering the deterioration of neighborhood schools.”
“In such a scenario, the children of informed and quick-acting parents have a choice while those “out of the loop” have no choice at all,” he writes.
Here’s the article’s “conclusion” section:
Charter schools will play a prominent role in public education during the coming decade. They suit the political agendas of many and hold great promise for developing innovative approaches to public education.
Charter schools have the potential to reinvigorate the public schools in districts that desperately need a boost. However, as states quickly move forward with charter school legislation, they risk establishing a process that merely provides further opportunities for well-informed families while ghettoizing the poor and uninformed.
The movement toward deregulation allows schools to exclude the neediest students, either through explicit policies or simply through lack of adequate information. .Ultimately, plaintiffs will have a difficult time showing that charter schools or state enabling acts violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment….However, state constitutions and successful school finance litigation in state courts indicate that state challenges to charter school legislation have a higher chance of success.
Most significantly, several policy changes would allow states to mandate a strong, autonomous charter school movement without depriving access to the schools. Greater state oversight of admissions policies and dissemination of information would close potential avenues of litigation while maintaining the legitimacy of charter schools.
These changes would add some costs to charter school legislation, but they would ultimately allow charter schools to reach greater numbers of at-risk students.
It would be a terrible waste of resources if charter schools were consistently tied up in litigation. It would be an even greater waste, though, if the charter school movement failed to reach the neediest public school students.
Meanwhile, Joey Garrison has written a detailed analysis of people and politics involved in the Great Hearts flap.
Posted by Tom Humphrey on September 24, 2012 at 11:06 AM
Copyright (c) 1998 New York University Law Review
New York University Law Review
NOTE: CHARTER SCHOOLS, EQUAL PROTECTION LITIGATION, AND THE NEW SCHOOL REFORM MOVEMENT
October, 1998
73 N.Y.U.L. Rev. 1290
Author
Kevin S. Huffman *
Excerpt
As the quality of public education, particularly in large urban school districts, has declined, activists and politicians from all points on the political spectrum have proposed school reforms. Many reformers have suggested versions of “school choice” programs. These efforts propose to alter the school assignment systems common to most public school districts, in which students attend neighborhood schools without regard to preference. While some activists seek parent choice just among the area public schools, others would expand the notion of choice to private or even parochial schools, giving tuition vouchers to students choosing to attend private schools. 1 School choice activists have argued for nearly three decades that opening the public school market will both stimulate competition and increase school quality. 2 While the choice movement has found support among political conservatives, 3 full-scale voucher programs have been defeated largely by the efforts of teachers’ unions and the Democratic Party. 4
The continued woes of public schools have forced even the staunchest defenders of the status quo to examine new methods of improving school systems. Many districts strapped for personnel now hire teachers without degrees in education or teaching certifications. 5 Both the Bush and Clinton administrations have moved to redefine public school goals with the aim of increasing quality through national standards. 6 Furthermore, as states’ rights became a more prominent issue on the political agenda, school reformers followed suit, advocating a shift in control from state and local bureaucracies to individual schools. 7 Many …
I absolutely cannot stand the sight of Kevin Huffman, and your post provides insight that intensifies my disdain for him.
I don’t understand why the board would vote on this issue if they’re only “allowed” to approve it. It reminds me of when dictators hold “elections” where they are the only “choice.”
Vouchers will not enable poor students to afford private school tuition in Nashville.
As a constituant, I am very pleased with the way my board member voted. Huffman’s insistence that the board approve Great Hearts undermines our representative democracy.
Now Huffman is holding back taxpayer funds of $3.4 million to punish the board because they didn’t approve the use of taxpayer money to privatize public education…
If parents deserve vouchers to send their children to private schools because they’re paying for education “twice,” then I want money too since my non-existant children do not attend public schools that my property taxes pay for… Oh the voucher mentality….
I absolutely cannot stand the sight of Kevin Huffman
Would that compromise your ability to help the commissioner understand his oath-sworn duties? Maybe he’s just as clueless as a high school civics student whose teacher didn’t get the memo.
Something about “professional educators who put politics before education” just seems a bit of an oxymoron, don’t you think?
Eric, I can appreciate that I’m just another stupid teacher. Frankly, I would prefer not to have anything to do with policy. But when policy thwarts pedagogy and harms students, I have a problem with that.
Curriculum has come a long way since Franklin Bobbitt’s “scientific” curriculum making, yet educational policies often do not allow for the implementation of more effective practices.
The writings of George Counts and Raymond Callahan seem a little too similar to what’s going on in our schools today. That’s bothersome.
There’s nothing to help Huffman understand; he already knows it all. If you don’t believe me, just ask him…
Joe,
I drafted an explanation, but apparently didn’t get it posted.
I intended a challenge, not an attack. I apologize.
No apology necessary…
As a private citizen, I don’t understand how Huffman et al. can force our elected board to “approve” a charter (hence my first post). So I’d welcome a challenge/explanation. (Btw, I’m not a Metro Schools employee.)
As an educator and (paid) researcher, I don’t like Huffman. I certainly hope participating on this message board does not constitute “placing politics about education.” Nonetheless, challenges to one’s thinking are a help not a hindrance.
This is not my fight, but if it were…
Ask the commissioner for his department’s plans to address the KOH memo on CERD. Ask how his charter proposal addressed those plans in light of his 1998 article. Ask how his explanations will be received by the TN Attorney General, the Knoxville US Attorney’s office, and USED OCR.
Odds are, he won’t get past the first question. So ask if the governor who appointed him was briefed on the Koh memo, and the commissioner ‘s responsibilities under CERD. Were these responsibilities addressed in the new governor’s transition plan?
For good measure, ask the commissioner if any of his CSSO peers have a clue regarding those responsibilities, and, if none, which states in NASBE will be addressing that cluelessness through their state boards of education. (Maybe CSSO and NASBE didn’t get the memo either…)
Finally, ask where in the high school civics curriculum students receive the preparation to ask all the above questions, together with the appropriate FOIA/open records requests.
If it were me, I’d ask how high school civics teachers are prepared to foster their students’ “allegiance to the republic” by holding officeholders accountable to their oaths of office. Then again, we might find out that NCSS (SPA) accredited ed schools aren’t holding up their end of the bargain.
Actually, if it were me, I’d start with the ed schools. No point in trashing the entire chain of command when the weak link is so easily identified.
Is there a particular reason that you like to throw around acronyms?
While there are certainly improvements I’d like to see in colleges of education, I cannot share in the broad generalization that they are all “weak links.” Some ed schools provide much more rigorous teacher education than others.
However, no improvements in teacher education, curriculum, instruction, assessments, etc., will be worthwhile if teachers are not empowered to use their professional judgement.
The state not only penalized Nashville for rejecting Great Hearts, it is not threatening the entire state with a voucher plan:
http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/metros-great-hearts-denial-motivates-legislature-push-vouchers-plan
Eric, the state of TN does not have any civics standards related to civil liberties and “allegiance to the republic”. The Government Standards and Competencies address business management, financial planning, and criminal justice. Period.
When you believe that some sort of “free market” magic and “competition” will transform schools, all sorts of BS is going to follow. Because “competition” is going to favor the wealthy. Especially where children are involved. Thanks to Diane for showing the world Huffman doesn’t give a damn about democracy or equality.
The weak links in TN are a right wing legislature, a feckless governor, and Kevin Huffman. His ignorance of pedagogy, child development, and curriculum are masked by his authoritarian micromanagement and hubris. He believes in the religion of markets for schools and in the teach for america cult as saviors. TN DoEd is a closed system to the public. It operates like a corporation with complete autonomy from accountability.
In TN we are serfs of ALEC with boilerplate laws that basically rig the game so that private-ish options can slip in under the wire. TEA seems to have done a poor job of grasping what was happening until finally the Leg tried to outlaw unions outright.
Metro Nashville has no recourse here; we’re stuck with race to the top and the only game is to change the laws at the state level. That means pretty much changing out the whole legislature.
The weak links in TN are a right wing legislature, a feckless governor, and Kevin Huffman. … the only game is to change the laws at the state level. That means pretty much changing out the whole legislature.
At some point, smarter voters would be helpful–perhaps an opportunity for public education?
All of Eric’s points bring us back to the public schools and the failing teachers….that is the problem for every issue in our society….when in doubt blame a teacher….it is just so simple.
When Justice Souter’s home was being picketed (due to Kelo) Souter remarked favorably that a neighbor was “one in a million” for reading the decision and observing that the Court hadn’t said what the protestors claimed.
It could be that I’m gently chiding educators in hopes they will step up to be “one in a million” in Justice Souter’s eyes by preparing a rising generation to hold officeholders accountable.
Perhaps I lack the skill my teachers exhibited when delivering the “I expected better of you” message.
Eric, I suggest you read Richard Hofstadter’s “Anti-intellectualism in American Life” and review your cultural history of the south. Huffman’s authoritarian dictates over curriculum, teacher evaluations, and education policy fit well with a deep fear in the south of critical thinking by a well educated population (translation: blacks, women and foreigners.) He was spawned by the Teach for America cult that eschews critical thinking in its core members as well as his total ignorance of quality educational and learning practices.
What is so deeply pernicious is that Huffman’s et al., movement is couched in civil rights rhetoric as saving poor, black kids yet, advances segregating charters/vouchers/crappy curriculum/dumbing down higher ed/ as the policies THEY, the other, need to achieve economic prosperity. What has been accomplished in TN re: education and the south since the 1970’s I fear will be lost for at least for generation.
… Anti-intellectualism in American Life …
I’d settle for American pragmatism, New England town meeting style. Or even Miss Congeniality: “I came here and I realized that these women are smart, terrific people who are just trying to make a difference in the world. And we’ve become really good friends. … And if anyone, anyone tries to hurt one of my new friends, I would take them out. I would make them suffer so much that they’d wish they were never born. And if they ran, I would hunt them down. Thank you, Kathy. “
The TN constitution ed clause is the weakest I’ve ever seen:
“The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance, support and eligibility standards of a system of free public schools.”
But the weak ed clause doesn’t preclude a challenge based on the US constitution and international treaties like CERD:
Click to access 137292.pdf
Also, I found something that looks like American Government standards
United States Government: 9-12
Click to access SS_3407.pdf
(My favorite: “critique the necessity of governmenance.”)
FWIW (They have elegance and depth! Do TN teachers use these or not?):
At Level 1, the student is able to list elements of American culture throughout American history.
…
At Level 3, the student is able to measure the relative effectiveness of capitalism on individuals and groups in America.
…
2.4 understand the connection among resources and institutions that govern the management and distributions of those resources. … At Level 3, the student is able to evaluate the effectiveness of institutions which are responsible for the management, and distribution of resources.
…
Standard Number: 4.0 Governance and Civics Standard: Governance establishes structures of power and authority in order to provide order and stability. Civic efficacy requires understanding rights and responsibilities, ethical behavior, and the role of citizens within their community, nation, and world. … At Level 3, the student is able to classify responsibilities of federal, state, and local governments and their relatedness; resolve the conflicts that are inherent in the concept of federalism, using constitutional principles.
…
6.5 understand the impact and influence of participatory citizenship on government at all levels.
…
6.7 understand the role of political action committees, non-profit organizations, and other groups that influenced policy and institutions.
…
Sample Tasks: Students will participate in a mock U.S. Senate simulation…
Those standards look like the ones that were in the old TN Blueprint or Bluebook (?). A few years ago, most of the standards were updated (with the exception of social studies at the time).
Keeping up with the updates to the standards can be a challenge in itself.
With regard to the ones you listed, the TN Bluebook, I remember the standards having letters such as I, D, M, and A beside them. As I recall,”I” meant they needed to be introduced, “D” for developing, and “M” for mastered.
But, as many administrators told us, it’s the “A” standards that “really matter” because those are the standards that will be “Assessed” on the high stakes test.
Years ago, I was told by a principal after an evaluation to make sure I was only teaching the “A” standards and not the others. Like a good soldier, I said, “Okay.” Then I went back and continued to do what I knew was right for my students.
If you make a statement, follow through with it. If you say the same things over and over to your child without imposing a consequence, he is never going to listen to you. However, if you truly mean what you say and you follow through with your words, your child will learn to listen to you the first time you say something.