Republican leaders in the Tennessee legislature are pushing ALEC model legislation to strip the Metro Nashville school board of its power to authorize charters. This is intended to punish Nashville for refusing to support Arizona-based Great Hearts Academy, a corporate chain that wants to open in an affluent white neighborhood. Memphis is also included in the proposal.
Nashville leaders, excepting the corporate-friendly mayor, oppose the legislation. The mayor believes that the power to expand charters is more important than local control. .
The ALEC bill has the support of Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst, the Wall Street hedge fund managers’ Democrats for Education Reform, and Stand for Children. In other words, the usual cheerleaders for corporate reform.
Opposition to the ALEC legislation was so intense from parents in Nashville and Memphis (the only districts targeted to lose local control) that the House Education Committee delayed a vote on the measure.
Supporters of public education are not giving up without a fight.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Why on Earth are republicans fighting local control?
They like the corporate take-over of public schools more.
I refer you to the Martin Neimoller quote for the explanation of why upper income groups are now being targeted for charterization. The poor have been successfully co-opted and infiltrated by the charter pushers. The middle class are next. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Niem%C3%B6ller
Is this law different than the one in CA (I suppose it’s important to note that funding in CA is run through the state rather than locally)? Trying to suss out the possible consequences.
The Bill sets up a system that allows a charter operator to bypass the locally elected board and go straight to a state appointed board/panel to get their application approved. The $ for the charter school will still come out of the pocket of the local district that the charter school is placed in without input from that district. There is no recourse for the citizens if a removed panel starts to approved several schools that are not meeting the needs of the district and or are failing. The only state approved charter school in Nashville had to be closed recently due to the fact it had been failing for several years. Our parent group. Standing Together for Strong Community Schools is very interested in a bill put forth a month ago by Rep. Forgety that presents a reasonable compromise and great solution to this issue in our view. Here is a link to that bill. http://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default.aspx?BillNumber=HB0446&ga=108
This is essentially the same law that exists in CA. It hasn’t had much of an effect–most charters still prefer to charter through their local district (and have a relatively civil relationship with them as they usually partner with them for special ed services, facilities, etc). There have been a handful that, after being rejected by a local district, went to the state and got a charter through them. But while the law has allowed charters to enter into previously resistent districts, it hasn’t been the end of traditional public schools by any means.
I’m excited to learn more about your group–we need more parents and community members standing up to create change in Metro schools!
And that is why DFER is setting up shop in Nashville and Memphis.