The Tennessee State Senate passed a bill based on ALEC model legislation to minimize local control.
ALEC is more dedicated to privatization and to the destruction of public sector agencies than to local control.
ALEC’s agenda is not conservative; it is extremist.
Under this bill, those who wish to open a privately managed charter school may apply to a state authorizing board if the local board turns them down.
This guts local control.
The legislation applies only to 5 of the state’s 95 districts, because the charters want to expand in the urban districts, especially Memphis and Nashville.
The bill is payback against the Metro Nashville school board, which on four occasions turned down the controversial Great Hearts Academy, which wanted to open in an affluent section of Nashville with no transportation plans for children from other neighborhoods. The board rejected their proposal because it would not serve the city’s neediest children.
State Commissioner Kevin Huffman–whose only experience as an educator was his two years in TFA–fined the Nashville district $3.4 million for rejecting Great Hearts.
Great Hearts has been criticized in Arizona, where it is based, for its lack of diversity, and for conflicts of interest on its board.
According to research by the Arizona Republic:
The 15 schools under the non-profit Great Hearts Academies offer a college-preparatory curriculum that stresses classic literature. That means students get an intensive reading regimen.
To supply the books, the schools have been making regular purchases for at least the last three years from a Tempe-based textbook company called Educational Sales Co. Daniel Sauer, the company’s president and CEO and a shareholder, is also an unpaid officer of the Great Hearts Academies non-profit.
Since July 2009, the schools have made $987,995 in purchases from the company.
Great Hearts also gives parents the option of buying books directly from the company. Six of the Great Hearts school websites feature links only to Educational Sales’ website for parents who want to buy a second set of books for use at home.
Great Hearts CEO Dan Scoggin said he doesn’t believe there is a conflict of interest because Great Hearts has no mandates on where its schools buy books. Many Great Hearts schools use several vendors based on pricing, service and availability, he said.
Great Hearts schools are exempt from state purchasing laws. Scoggin said Great Hearts doesn’t have a contract with Educational Sales because schools have choices on where they make textbook purchases.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
OK, so local control is good when you want parents to close down “failing”public schools and open charters, but bad when parents (via their elected school board) say no to charters….I get it.
LikeLike
Parents don’t close down “failing schools.” They fight it.
Arne Duncan closes down failing schools.
Rahm Emanuel closes down failing schools.
Mayors in control close down failing schools.
I have yet to hear of parents saying, “please close down our neighborhood school.”
LikeLike
Oh, well. We’ll just tell the kids public schools aren’t fashionable right now.
One can’t expect this group of adults to tear themselves away from promoting Great Hearts Academy and look towards the effect of their actions on the schools they’ve abandoned.
LikeLike
If anyone is interested in looking at the legal issues regarding local control and funding, this is a good place to read up on that:
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/education_law/2014/02/court-holds-that-charter-schools-can-tap-into-school-districts-rainy-day-funds.html
This is a North Carolina case regarding “rainy day” funds put aside by districts. The case says that charters may tap into district rainy day funds immediately:
“Regardless of whether they save or do not save money, charter schools’ allotment is the same. If the district decides to save, charter schools would get their money now, whereas traditional public schools would be deferring their funds. Theoretically, it all evens out in the end, but the notion that a charter school down the street is getting funds for the current school year that traditional public school is not will not be received well by many.”
These issues are not being discussed or debated or thought through in any responsible, long-term way in the legislative process. Instead, they are going to courts, which is of course not how our system was designed to work. Courts shouldn’t be designing a public system.
This isn’t just a concern for “parents” who are making “choices”. It’s a concern for every single person who contributes to public funding for public education. We all contribute to this, and we all should have a say in how public finances are handled. A case by case basis is the WORST way to create a parallel school system, and that’s exactly what’s happening.
LikeLike
“Since then, the Metro school board has argued that the influx of charter schools in Davidson County has created a financial toll. An attorney for Metro Nashville Public Schools in August said schools approved by the state could be subject to legal challenges because it would “impose increased costs on local governments with no offsetting subsidy from the state.”
Pinkston said he believes litigation will be discussed if the state “actually tries” to bring new charters into existence: “At a time when the state is already underfunding its share of public education, this legislation would basically confiscate Davidson County taxpayer dollars in order to create new state-run schools with very little accountability.”
As usual, absolutely no concern for the health or stability of existing public schools. They’re completely ignored and abandoned.
LikeLike
Chiara, this is not an accident. It is the goal.
LikeLike
Also, Diane, Kevin Huffman has announced that any opposition to his agenda is brought by “interest groups” that “pretend” to represent local people.
This must be the cooperative, caring approach I’ve heard so much about.
“Huffman also dismisses resistance from groups that “pretend” to represent parents. Without singling out organizations, he says most represent special interests.”
Weird how every single dissenter is immediately smeared as a union member or “special interest”, in state after state and city after city.
It’s like it’s impossible for ed reformers to be wrong about anything, ever. To resist is to reveal oneself as a “special interest”! It’s a beautiful way to shut down any dissent or discussion.
http://knoxblogs.com/humphreyhill/tag/kevin-huffman/
LikeLike
Good point! I live in the area of Nashville where they wanted to put Great Hearts, and I don’t want this charter. I am an individual, an educator, a researcher, and I am not a union member. Huffman is an arrogant TFA amateur who knows nothing about education. I voted for school board member Amy Frogge, and I will continue to vote for her because she was against Great Hearts.
LikeLike
The smear tactics are carefully contrived around the concept of double-speak from the man dubbed the father of “Public Relations, Edward L. Bernay’s–who advocated the same kind of arms length deniability typical of ALEC.
Bernay’s tactics to protect the interests of corporate America are found in ” Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923, 1961); Propaganda (1928); Molding Public Opinion (1935); and The Engineering of Consent (1947). His ideas were admired by Joseph Goebbels among many others.
If you have the luxury of time, read PR! The Social History of Spin by Stuart Ewen (1996) NY:Basic Books.
LikeLike
It’s as regular as rain. The language is identical, city to city and state to state.
It’s “unions” and if it isn’t “unions” it’s “special interests” and everyone has bad intentions and everyone is self-interested, except the pure and self-sacrificing ed reform managers, who apparently can’t get along with anyone in these places they parachute into, but that is NEVER their fault.
If you’re a manager and everywhere you plunk down there’s discord and anger and chaos, you might want to look at your approach instead of blaming everyone who lives there.
Where’s the accountability in the managerial ranks? All I hear are excuses. How can there be any accountability if they have this handy response to any dissent? They are always blameless. It’s childish and small. These people value something that Huffman doesn’t value. He better figure out what that is instead of rolling over them.
LikeLike
Thank you, Laura, for sharing the playbook that the deformers are using. Well said!
LikeLike
I’m curious why we need the ed reform manager once the public schools are gone. They’re not “running” these privatized schools anymore than the federal government is running the health insurance companies on the exchanges.
Do we really need a manager at all to write checks to private contractors and administer a “choice” website? All the school services are outsourced.
Seems like we could hire a good accounting firm to “run” one of these privatized districts. Let’s take Huffman’s job private.
LikeLike
Of course, the complete elimination of local boards that run the schools is part of the overall plan here. Many very smart and long-serving educators several years back thought it would be more “efficient” to have one board for each of the 50 states and maybe a board for the largest 15 or so urban school districts. It is an idea that might have had merit before public education started being annihilated by the privatization movement. Now, only 65 boards of education for the whole country would mainly serve the charter operators, since, yes, there’s no need to have a reform manager or a managing board if the board isn’t running the schools anyway. Once public schools are wiped off the landscape, democracy won’t last long, replaced everywhere by some sort of plutocracy.
LikeLike
It is like an alternate universe where Florida and Tennessee are the same place? Keep fighting Tennessee, we are fighting with you!
LikeLike
Must be that Florida and Tennesee are parts of Kansas, eh!!
LikeLike
TAGO, Duane-o!
LikeLike
Oh my . . . .
I thought local control was a very right wing, conservative value. . . . NO BIG GOVERNMENT. . . . !
Right?
But it appears that Tennessee has increased the presence of government in the people’s lives.
This is the fault of the GOP and the Democrats, and they will feel it one day at the polls and hopefully not in any other unacceptable manner. People are fed up and are at the breaking point.
Our government should represent the people and not ALEC . . . .
LikeLike
Haslam and Huffman will be known as the destroyers of public education IN Tennessean. Huffman is egotistical and absolutely focused on his destructive agenda. The saddest part of all is that there is no hope because Tennesssee has only one party. No serious opposition. We might as well be
LikeLike
Sorry …. we might as well be a totalitarian govt in Tennessee run by corporate interests with no concern for Tennesseans.
LikeLike
How are the local people in Tennessee reacting to this? I find it hard to believe that this would go over well there.
LikeLike
I don’t think many know what’s going on or care. The Tennessean, which used to be a very balanced Nashville paper, is now owned by Gannett and sings the praises of corporate reform. You have Tennessee Score, run by another well heeled Tennessee family – Frist- which worships the almighty test score. Haslam is very popular, but probably the least bright of the very wealthy and connected Pilot Oil family. (Think George Bush in his family – I guess the least bright in these dynasties are put in politics)’ There is no stopping this without more folks understanding how this is driven by mostly out of state forces like ALEC.
LikeLike
This stuff has been done in Michigan. They will just ignore the will of the people and pass laws that the people have rejected at the ballot box. The people of Michigan voted down an Emergency Manager law passed by the right-wing government here with Tea party gov. Instead of honoring the will of the people they passed another EM law. You need to organize people quickly and use real action. Our local media is a joke too so you can’t rely on them to get the word to the people.
LikeLike
There is this drift to more state control which will harm the whole concept of local boards and autonomy.
LikeLike