In Nashville, two new members of the school board debate whether the Metro Nashville school board should sue the state for withholding $3.4 million to punish the board.
TFA Commissioner of Education Kevin Huffman, who is devoted to charter schools and privatization, withheld the $3.4 million from Nashville to punish the board because it rejected an application from the Great Hearts charter corporation of Arizona. The board did not like the fact that Great Hearts had a defective plan for diversity, would locate in an affluent neighborhood, and has a reputation for requiring an upfront “contribution” of $1200-1500 from families.
Great Hearts looks like, smells like, sounds like a publicly funded school for affluent families. The board didn’t like that. It rejected Great Hearts four times.
Huffman, who once was a teacher for two years but has no other relevant experience to be a state commissioner, was furious. He held back $3.4 million from the district.
Amy Frogge, a new board member, provided the key vote to reject the charter. Frogge is a public school parent and a lawyer. She beat a corporate funded candidate who far outspent her. She wants to sue to get the money that rightly belongs to the school district. She is a member of our honor roll for her courage and dedication to public education and the right of all children to a good education.
We are proud of Amy Frogge. She will not be bullied. She is standing up for the children. She deserves her place on the honor roll.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Go, Amy! Go!
Charter schools for the well to do is another twist in charter schools in NOLA. They used poor kids to get charter laws passed, now we are seeing more and more charters that don’t even pretend to serve poor kids. Simply put, this is how they are creating private schools at taxpayer expense.
Yes, these charter schools for the affluent are the direct descendants of the Whites Only academies that were established in the South as a way of avoiding desegregation.
Civil rights movement of our time, indeed!
And the wealthy can sock away that extra tuition money they don’t have to spend on private schools and divert money from the public schools they have never used.
Starve and Supplant —
It’s the same tactic being used across the nation.
Jeez. Amy Frogge wants to fight and fulfill her campaign promises and seek the return of $3.4M to Metro schools. On the otherhand, Will Pinkston (what was his platform?) just wants to move on and avoid the”distractions” and focus on the task at hand. Where have I heard that before? Someone help me (war crimes, financial crimes, and other lack of prosecutions) Well, since when was $3.4M just chump change that could be left on the table?
Yep, Don’t look back or behind the curtain-same ol same ol for not dealing with the destructive oligarchy that rules this country.
I’d be happy to have 1% of that 3.4M. It would help my personal finances quite nicely.
They need to sue…They need to fight back…They are being steamrolled by a bully and they need to stop him.
The facts…
– MNPS Board’s own charter review committee found that Great Hearts satisfied every single MNPS approval criteria
– It unanimously recommended that the School Board approve Great Hearts
– The school board has known for months that Great Hearts’ diversity and transportation plans for Nashville exceed what MNPS requires of its own open enrollment schools
– Multiple school board members and MNPS officials have repeatedly made untrue statements about Great Hearts’ program, mission, charter application, and diversity plans for Nashville
– The school board and senior MNPS officials are disregarding facts and willfully violating state laws
The big losers here are the familes of MNPS who would be able to receive a private school quailty education, something that is currently out of reach.
TN’s loss is TX’s gains as Great Hearts is being welcome to San Antonio with open arms.
Yeah, I feel so sorry for those affluent folks who just can’t afford private education for their little dears.
Tennessee law says the State Board of Education hears appeals to charter school rejections and can remand decisions back to the local school board with directions to OK the charter’s.
The law also gives the commissioner the power to punish school districts for violating state law.
Mind posting the specific statute(s)?
So much for local control. I thought conservatives subscribed to the doctrine of the best government is that which is closest to the people (can’t think of the latin term now someone help me!)
If this is the law, I think it’s a law that needs challenged.
How has the school board broken state law? What law(s) in particular?
Is witholding the $3.4M allowed under state law?
Sorry, posted in the wrong place.
Tennessee law says the State Board of Education hears appeals to charter school rejections and can remand decisions back to the local school board with directions to OK the charter’s.
The law also gives the commissioner the power to punish school districts for violating state law.
And the Legislature is threatening to adopt vouchers to punish the Metro Nashville school board! Nice. So the Republicans who control the Legislature will destroy public education in Tennessee because this one charter operator was rejected. Makes sense? Why does Great Hearts matter so much that the whole state must be punished?
They’ve been filling pockets probably.
Don’t forget to mention that they are also planning on taking away local authorization of charters.
Great Hearts satisfied every single MNPS approval criteria … Great Hearts’ diversity and transportation plans for Nashville exceed what MNPS requires …
Dr. Ravitch claims that Great Hearts would not meet the goals described by Huffman himself:
Do the MNPS criteria view diversity as a compelling interest? Do they address Parents Involved?
What I hear from San Antonio is that families are mobilizing to fight Great Hearts. They too see the school as a haven for white families escaping the children of the poor.
That will be fantastic that those mobilizing will be able to stop their nieghbors’ children from receving a superior academic experience.
More power to the mobilizers.
What makes Great Hearts “superior”?
Define superior academic experience.
Provide supporting evidence of said at the charter school.
Thank you,
It’s a tough crowd here but I agree with dienne and ang. We thrive on forcing the edudeformers and privatizers to back up their rhetoric with some substance.
I live in the Great Hearts homeland. It is exactly as Diane describes. It is very appealing to those who want to be in a bubble. A bubble free of poor kids and Spanish speaking families and people who see the world differently. It’s test scores are good (except for the one school it has in downtown Phoenix, which has a much poorer student population than its other schools). I think that is what people find excellent. There is another layer that is troubling. The chain was started by very conservative Catholic families. I think they are smart enough not to directly teach religion given their public funding, but the curriculum and methodology they use are very geared toward making sure that students absorb a very conservative way at looking at the world. Socratic method? They will ask students questions as many ways as they need to until they get the “right” answer. Books? The reading list is Great Books, thank you very much, and no “pop culture” books are allowed in their libraries. Or elsewhere. Actually, no “pop culture” references are allowed at school at all. Did the Diamondbacks or Suns or Wildcats win last night? Don’t talk about that here. Many of their teachers (per their website they prefer to hire teachers who are not trained by traditional education colleges) are new graduates of the University of Dallas – a conservative Catholic college. Did I mention that one of their headmasters serves as the President of Arizona Right to Life in his spare time and is a professor at a Catholic Theology Institute? I think those who characterize this as a superior education are easily impressed. Not for my family, thank you.
I think those who characterize this as a superior education are easily impressed.
What would impress Thomas Jefferson and Horace Mann? Is it available to Nashville schoolchildren?
Just like Ms Ravitch at times, your argument largely consists of ad hominem attacks. Every Great Hearts school is outperforming the district schools that surround it in every conceivable measurment and providing a private school quaility education.
Do you wish to take this away from the students at Great Hearts Teleos Prep in central Phoenix, which is 69% Black, 16% Hispanic and 12% White and 64% are on reduced lunch.
Please do not misrepresent my point. I believe in my core that the children attending Teleo deserve excellent educational opportunitites. I believe that all children in Arizona do. I expect a high quality public education system for children who live in South Phoenix and North Scottsdale and everywhere in between. I blame our Legislature and Governor for failing to comsistently deliver that. I hope that parents in Arizona stand up and tell our elected representatives that it is time they do their jobs.
Giving up on and abandoning public schools in favor of private groups (such as Great Hearts and Basis) that serve a very small percentage of children who fit into a narrow demographic category and who have parents who buy into a very specific and exclusive educational and cultural philosophy is NOT the answer to our problems. I object, strongly, to the leaders of Great Hearts and Basis serving a small population in a way that could never be scaled, and then using their “success” as a battering ram against public education. My hope is that we in Arizona get unified on this before it is too late. We have some amazing public schools in Arizona and many truly incredible teachers. There is much to build on here.
I guess it will come down to a cost/benefit issue. How much will it cost to sue and risk losing? I’ve heard from friends who work in MNPS that there many who want to do without the money Huffman is withholding; one friend even told me he is concerned he will have to spend more of his own money for supplies. Ideally, I’d like Amy to fight this and even expose the whole thing, but she is only one member on the board. On the other hand, if MNPS does without, then Huffman’s tactic will have also failed. Money didn’t win the election for Margaret Dolan when she ran against Amy; that’s reassuring. Hopefully money won’t cause MNPS to cave to Great Hearts either, regardless of whether or not legal action is pursued.
The pressure being put on the board to not sue is from those business interests who know that MNPS would win the lawsuit and embarrass the state and GHA.
Let’s face it, the GHA proposal even drew opposition from Stand for Children, hardly an anti-charter organization.
For anyone interested, here is the MNPS director of charter schools’ excellent presentation of the recommendation to deny the GHA charter. This video contains discussion of several charter recommendations, discussion of GHA begins at 17:55.
Thanks for posting the video. It was an impressive presentation, and the discussion was interesting too.