Tracy O’Neill is a mom and education activist in rural Cheatham County, Tennessee. This pleasant community is now riven by a controversy, as TFA corps members seek approval to open a charter school to compete with the public schools. Aside from the financial cost to the community, the charter school will divide community support for the local schools. Tracy is running for a seat on the local school board, to be in a position to support the public schools against this effort to undermine them and set neighbor against neighbor.
Tuesday, June 10, 2014 – Tracy A. O’Neill – Ashland City, TN
Cheatham County, Tennessee is a small rural community just outside of Nashville. As far as the eye can see are rolling hills and green fields. Driving down the main roads through the small towns that make up the corners of our beautiful county you find Community theaters, baseball diamonds, soccer games, and Friday night lights that fill the weeks throughout the year. One of the many benefits of living in a small country town is that we know our neighbors; we know the kids, and we are involved in our public schools.
Like many communities across the country, and the state of Tennessee, Cheatham Co has been struggling with poor leadership on our local school board and in our administration. Over the last few years, we have had a revolving door of teachers come and go for one reason or another. Due to poor decisions at the top, our lovely quiet community has become a target area for the infamous poachers of public education: Teach for America.
A few years ago, a new Director of Schools- who was bought out after one year – brought Teach for America corps members ( TFA ) to fill the “hard to fill teaching positions,” yet core subjects in the High Schools, like math, were left unfilled for months at a time. I find it ironic, and disgraceful that the Cheatham county Board of Education continues to push highly qualified, experienced educators out the door, yet continue to offer two-year contracts to unlicensed TFA recruits that have only five weeks training. What I want to know is the rationale behind this decision?
Apparently, the “solution” is being offered by two TFA Corps members who, in April, submitted an application for a Charter School to open in little ole’ Cheatham County. On June 10, 2014, a newly comprised committee appointed by the school board hosted a public meeting to ask questions of the applicants and their board members. Ironically, but not really surprisingly, 3 of the 6 members sitting at the table for the new Cumberland Academy are from Teach for America. (Jimmy Hopper, Johnny Gersten and Brian Gilmore are all TFA alums). Hopper has been teaching in our High School for the past two years on a transitional license and Gersten, also transitional, taught at the Middle School for a short period a year or so ago. Most Cheatham County parents don’t know about Teach for America. They believed Hopper and Gersten were two of the many dedicated teachers in our school system. Now, we learn Hopper and Gersten have been teaching here with a goal to open Cumberland Academy, which will be, according to the Charter Board, the first model for rural charters across the entire country
Neither Gersten, nor Hopper, were licensed teachers in Tennessee. In fact, the lead guy, Jimmy Hopper, worked in DC Politics for one of the major parties before coming to the Cheatham County classroom and these two young men are slated to be the operators of this new school. Neither of them have a professional administrator’s license, yet Hopper will assume the role similar to an Executive Director, and Gersten….Well HE’S the “Director of CULTURE,” whatever the heck THAT dubious job description means.
Cheatham County has an ever-shrinking tax base and limited financial resources. This school is targeting students from the Ashland City and East Cheatham Elementary schools. Our county is wide and separated by the Cumberland River. The likelihood of students traveling to Ashland City from Pegram, Kingston Springs or Pleasant View to attend this school is slim. Therefore, logic would dictate that those students will be pulled from ONE middle school.
The Charter school will begin with 90 5th graders and add a higher grade each year. Now, that doesn’t sound like much. However, when you consider our average total class sizes range from 130-150 students, it’s HUGE! That’s over 50% of ONE class! Add another grade each year and they will decimate student enrollment at our middle school and severely limit our budget. We may have to lay off more teachers…we may have to combine classes…we may have to eliminate classes. Our local leaders may have to look to raise property taxes on struggling homeowners and landowners to make up for the loss. Parents and citizens need to understand what it means to allow a Charter School operation in a local community, especially one classified as rural, because contrary to self serving propaganda, this is NOT about school choice. It’s about MONEY.
In the neighboring City of Nashville, all available new revenue for Metro-Nashville Public Schools is going to charter schools, which currently serve only 5% of their students. The average annual growth in cash outlays for charter schools has exceeded 50% since 2008, versus only 4% for the rest of the district. Memphis is $157 million in debt, but must continue to pony up charter school funds. In 2003, the charter school budget was $1.9 million. Now it’s $82.9 million and even that’s up from $57.8 million last year. That’s over a $20 million increase in ONE YEAR! EIGHTY MILLION in just 10 years!
The Charter committee said they will target Cheatham County’s low income families, and homeschoolers, and are preparing a mass mail out with those families they have identified as prospects. The proposed operation site is in a local shopping center in between the Tractor Supply and the Food Lion grocery store. Where is the play ground for the kids? The parking lot? They have no plans to have a kitchen or onsite cafeteria services, but will find a contractor to give the kids some kind of food.
When asked by the committee why they haven’t provided a commitment letter for annual funding, Board member and venture capitalist Landon Gibbs replied, “none of these people want us to use their names.” Well, I find that to be a bit disconcerting. Who’s hiding what here?
The Charter Board members touted their recruitment to the committee stating they have had approximately 50 supportive parents at their public meetings. Cheatham County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Ann Thomson followed up with, “How many of those 50 parents are (in your designated) low income target area?” The “I don’t know” response was stifling. Board of Education Instruction Supervisor, Stacey Brinkley asked the Charter Board their procedure for hiring highly qualified teachers. Brain Gilmore advised the board that they plan to use many avenues but intend to focus on TFA Alum to fill their classrooms.
Cheatham County’s Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Tara Watson asked the members why a “public charter?” With the name dropping of the Walton Foundation and all the infinite resources they seem to have available, “Why not open a private school?” she asked. TFA’s Gersten replied, “Our funders are very excited about The Cumberland Academy… They are not excited about funding another private school.” My question is, why not? If they truly believe they are innovators of education, then they need to put their money where their mouth is and fund this “public” school without our tax dollars. There is no law prohibiting a privately funded school from being open to the public. Colleges and Universities do it all the time.
As much information as I’ve written, I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of this proposal. I believe this Charter school will cost us far more than it will contribute. Charter schools, whether labeled “public” or “private” are entities managed by private corporations that operate outside the purview of the law and outside the spirit in which they were originally designed and Cheatham County simply can’t afford another liability.
The Cheatham County School Board will be voting on the application to open The Cumberland Academy, June 24th, 2014. The meeting begins at 6:00 pm at the Annex Building in Ashland City. A public forum will be opened before they take up the application. Considering TFA people intend to use Cumberland Academy as their testing ground for a national model for rural charters, I strongly encourage every person possible to be at this meeting, because a TFA rural Charter just might be coming to your back yard next.
Space is VERY limited, so plan to arrive early if you want a seat.
Tracy A. O’Neill
Ashland City, TN
Cheatham County
Diane Ravitch's blog 
There seem to be a number of issues in that district: https://dianeravitch.net/2013/06/04/what-is-going-on-in-cheatham-county-tennessee/
The issues in TN’s impoverished rural districts will not be solved with TFA temps.
Go visit one of those TN rural areas and you’d think you were in a third world country. There are NO jobs, dirt roads, no internet access, and an extremely unsophisticated population. The carpetbaggers in TFA & edu-reformers will steal those people blind.
My money is on the locals taking them on a field trip to the boondocks and having them find their way back to town with no cell service for their smartphones. Maybe some bears in a berry patch. Snakes and poison ivy. There might be poetic justice in that. Rural people are suspicious of outsiders and might test them. Just sayin’.
And you can expect Kevin Huffman to endorse the influx of these spoon-fed TFA zombies who eat up diminishing resources in that county.
KHuff is a phallus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yytldVPhY0A
Joe N,
TDMTATAGO!
For my fellow AIers:
That’s deserves more than a TAGO!
All should watch and listen.
Mil Gracias, Joe!!!!
Glad you enjoyed it Duane 🙂 I have a few others that I’ll post on my website when I can.
Joe Nashville: TAGO!
“Laughter is poison to the pompous.”
¿? My bad…
TDMTATAGO!
😎
It will be devastating for rural schools. I think the charters will turn into quasi-private schools, because there will be an exodus of the better-off families from the public school. For one thing, better-off families will be able to transport their children and lower income people will not. Rural schools are diverse economically (their great strength, I think) because there simply aren’t enough students to split off into high/low neighborhoods and the practical realities of transportation are different.
It’s one of the things I love about mine. My kids went and go to school with kids from every imaginable income bracket. I think it’s been great for them.
The whole charter “choice” concept is predicated on suburban/urban and that’s the entire focus of media, because that’s where national media ARE.
Once again, we see ed reformers blithely disregard the effects of their actions on existing systems. Public schools are just throw-aways. They have no value. I don’t know if it’s stupidity or hubris or both. It’s absolutely reckless, that’s for sure.
Reblogged this on Science Magic Parties and commented:
Charter Schools are all about profit, salaries for administrators, and getting tax-payer money into private pockets. For the politician, it is a “campaign donation”; for the parents it is an experiment; for the students — a disaster. It is incredibly expensive to have a functional Chemistry Lab. You need pipes for gas. You need pipes for water — both in-flow and out-flow. You need electricity. You need acid-safe cabinets and storage. You need a hood. You need ventilation. Maximum class size should be 24 students per lab. You need safe storage. There is NO WAY TO GO CHEAP on quality education. Go Cheap and you will have kids in the Hospital…. Go ask Lincoln Park High School what happened when they went cheap on a Chemistry teacher… they will say “No comment”, but there is one, maybe two lawsuits pending because they went “cheap” on a Chemistry teacher.
When my middle child started school here, I was approached by a group of parents who wanted to “transform” the local Catholic school into a high-quality non-religious private school and then we would all take our kids out of the public school and send them to this new school.
The entire group was composed of physicians and lawyers and manager-level business people.
I never inquired further and it never got off the ground, but it would have hit the public school hard, which none of them considered. The effect on the public schools wasn’t even mentioned.
There’s this stubborn refusal to admit that communities are systems that baffles me. It’s as if one can pull one string and not have the whole system change, and the assumption is that the change will be ALWAYS good, everyone wins!- which is flat-out delusional.
Ironic that this is happening in Cheatham County. Should be renamed Cheathem County in deference to crime about to perpetrated on the community and students.
Dewey, Cheatham and Howe!
Great firm.
Thank you for posting this Diane-we are going to rally around Cheatham here in TN- wear red for Ed and bring signs—^0^
The reason they get backing from folks around there with money is because the public school churns out students who cannot speak proper English. I have heard this from sources who advocate for KIPP and TFA there. One person I know there said her family started off giving a scholarship opportunity and they were so disappointed in the quality of writing from the applicants, that they began to look for outside ways to help the quality of education. Also, I am told that when folks who have money to help out with public schools have tried to approach the public school establishment, they are met with deaf ears.
So I think several things are probably happening:
1. Regionalism in the speaking manner is deep seated in Tennessee.
2. Public school folks are afraid of outside help coming in, so they ignore it.
3. TFA teachers will have more success in a school made to fit their needs, more so than the students.
What is “proper English”?
Joanna your response frustrates me because it highlights a variety of problems in this “public schools are failing” faux narrative.
You stated:
“The reason they get backing from folks around there with money is because the public school churns out students who cannot speak proper English”- Joanne, this is a generalization, that is offered with no proof to back it up. Where is the fact/link to support this? Could you please provide it?
“One person I know there said her family started off giving a scholarship opportunity and they were so disappointed in the quality of writing from the applicants, that they began to look for outside ways to help the quality of education”
It would be interesting to see if she is making any $s on this “outside way to help”. Furthermore, I get a bit frustrated with the “One person I know” anecdotes that people relay to justify destroying a public institution. They come across as very lacking in critical thought, and often, outright lies.
My “one person” story negates yours: I work at a school which is 80+ poverty, and very high in terms of English Language Learners. I get kids every year who are writing very confused paragraphs in English, and I take them forward to writing better and less confusing paragraphs in English…some to the point that you would be easily able to write multiple anecdotes that are positive about my kids… If your “one person” was looking to help schools, instead of defund them to make a buck. Is this the case, Joanne?
Why is it that everyone is considered an expert on education, no matter their background? Why is it that some people offer sweeping generalizations and anecdotes with no proof, and I am expected to believe them?
Is your “one person” a *licensed teacher with a Masters and multiple certifications in ELA, ELL, ESL and LEP*? Does she have years of experience teaching in poor schools? IF so, did she also see the “before” writing examples, and then a year later? What makes her qualified to talk about the kids not speaking English “properly”? Maybe if this “one person” is so concerned, she could hightail her one person butt down to the local school and start volunteering with these supposedly poor applicants…who knows, maybe she really doesn’t want to help them?
Who knows, maybe she will change her viewpoint? Maybe she just wants to create an impression of *wanting* to help, maybe her scholarship is *designed to fail*, to create a fictitious “one person” narrative to circulate to argue for not supporting the local school? It would be interesting what your “one person” is doing, *besides* of course, being a Monday arm chair quarterback: giving money for a scholarship, is not “in the trenches” btw.
I don’t think that any critical thinker’s opinions on this issue should be formed by a “one person” narrative, but instead, by a deep, systematic, systemic inquiry into what exactly is the cause of these kids not speaking “proper” English ( if that indeed, is even the case)
Unless your friend has done this, and is the type of teacher that I described above, her opinion is not valid as a point of reference. All opinions are not equal.
I think it’s great that she knows the TFA’s and she believes they are well-intentioned, but watching this happen in city after city it has occurred to me that this kind of disregard for existing public schools and the system effects would not come about if ed reformers VALUED public schools.
The parents and teachers in Chicago and Philadelphia spent a lot of time explaining the role of the public schools in their neighborhoods. They were completely ignored and rolled over.
I don’t think ed reformers are assigning any value to public schools, or they wouldn’t risk harming them or throw them away as easily as they do.
One can pretty much tell what people value by watching their actions. If you value something, you’re not reckless with it. No one is.
My reaction is full of unprintable language. I hope you beat back this threat. The hubris of youth. Yikes!
I send my very best wishes to Tracy and those who oppose this horrible plan.
My advice is to keep digging into the details of the proposal and keep up the effort to educate the community about the devastation a charter school will bring to the local school district. Enlist the support of administrators and teachers from surrounding districts too because it’s still possible that at least a few of their students (along with their state aid) will be drawn to the charter initially. Lobby your state reps and whatever entity authorizes charters in TN. Recruiting a sympathetic journalist to report the facts would help as well.
This spring we fought and pushed back a similar proposal, minus the TFA aspect, in my rural area. It can be done.
I think it would be more accurate to describe this county as suburban or exurban rather than rural: it is a component of the Nashville metropolitan statistical area, it is immediately adjacent to Nashville’s county, and its population has increased by 45% in the last 20 years. The point being that there seems to be enough mass here to support another option.
Yeah, I think that’s Wal-Mart’s argument too when deciding to locate in every frackin’ one-horse town in the universe.
I live very close to the county, and it is definitely rural.
Would you say it’s very poor?
FLERP!, I wouldn’t necessarily equate “rural” with “poor.” If one were to look at the percentage of students eligible for free lunch at each school, it ranges from 16.8% to 65.3%. That maybe higher than some districts and lower than others. It’s definitely not the type of area where a child might get a brand new BMW for his or her 16th birthday either (unlike some actual suburbs around Nashville). Frankly, I’d say the county is at least slightly underdeveloped economically in comparison to adjacent counties (having many fewer places to shop creates less tax revenue). There are those who want to attract more businesses to the county as well.
Most of the folks from the county would say it’s rural (including Ms. O’Neill). If it “can’t” be “classified” as rural simply because of its proximity to Nashville, then that classification is not representative of reality. If anyone doubts this, I’d suggest visiting and seeing for yourself.
If there’s really something to debate with regard to whether the county is rural or suburban, perhaps some other debate topics could include whether the Pope is Catholic or Protestant, whether or not the earth orbits the sun, whether the moon is made of rock or cheese, and whether or not dogs ever have flatulence.
There was a discussion about a truly rural school district in Concordia Kansas recently (https://dianeravitch.net/2014/06/16/mark-weber-dont-mess-with-teacher-tenure-in-new-jersey/comment-page-1/#comment-1955000)
Concordia is a town of a little less than 5,000 inhabitants. It is the largest town in the surrounding 5,345 square miles.
That’s interesting TE. According to the National Center for Education Statistics has three classifications of rural: fringe, distant, and remote. They are based on distances from an urban cluster. All of Davidson County is considered Nashville; however, the urban cluster includes the Nashville-Davidson – Murfreesboro – Franklin, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area. That is a very wide area that contains many rural communities, regardless of how they may be classified in a database. I suppose we can “slice and dice” things in a variety of ways. Interestingly, according to the 2010 census, Concordia (the county seat of Cloud County, Kansas) had a population of 5,395. Ashland City (the county seat of Cheatham County, TN) had a population of 4,541.
Proximity to population centers are important. Concordia is the largest city in Cloud county and all of the counties adjacent to Cloud county (if memory serves, at least one of the adjacent counties has a population of less then 4,000).
Cheatham County has a population density of about 119 people per square mile, Cloud County has a population density of 13.4 people per square mile.
The counties adjacent to Cloud county are
Republic: population density of 7.2 people per square mile
Washington: population density 6.7 people per square mile
Clay: population density 13.4 people per square mile
Ottawa: population density 8.5 people per square mile
Mitchell: population density 8.8 people per square mile
Jewell: population density 3.7 people per square mile
Yeah, I agree with you TE, and I’d invite anyone who believes that Cheatham County is not rural to visit Nashville. I’d be willing to personally take that person to all the non-touristy areas where people actually live to see the different areas. Suggesting Cheatham County isn’t rural seems as silly as suggesting that Bill Gates isn’t wealthy. Of course, if corporations are classified as “people,” perhaps Gates could possibly be considered “not wealthy” in comparison to some multinational corporations. It’s hard to say, and I wouldn’t be interested in running those data. Basically, there’s an enormous difference between Brentwood, TN (Williamson County) and Ashland City, TN (Cheatham County).
I suppose rural is a matter of perspective.
I just looked up the population figures for Kansas counties. If Cheatham County was in Kansas, it would be the 12th most populated county in the state (there are 105 counties in Kansas). The median population county has about 7,000 residents.
Here is the list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_counties_in_Kansas
Interesting again TE. Of course, if you and I were actually collaborating on research together, we’d need to determine what to use as our unit of analysis and stick with it. Having said that… (lol) Of course KS has 6 electoral votes, whereas TN has 11. Other than the two votes for each state based on each having 2 senators, the remaining votes are determined by the number of representatives based on census. Basically, there’s a difference between the two states, but I digress.
I’ve been to many rural areas around the country; some were a few miles from metropolitan areas, and others were many miles away from a metropolitan area. I just about spit out my coffee when I read the part about Cheatham County being “suburban.” Even if it is technically suburban, it isn’t in reality by any means of the imagination. I’ve been there plenty of times too.
What is classified as the “Nashville-Davidson – Murfreesboro – Franklin, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area” is basically most of the middle of the state, consisting of a very spread-out area with a number or rural communities. For example, I sincerely doubt that somebody living in Columbia, TN would claim to live in “Nashville,” let alone a “suburb.” But I suppose classifications come and go. Yet it makes me want to be sure that I’m being conscientious of potential disparities of how I may categorize data for research purposes and the reality of that which has been categorized.
With regard to the original topic of the blog post, it would be interesting to see if the county commission would fund this even if the BOE passes it (given the politics of the area).
Fair enough, Joe Nashville. The folks at the Census Bureau take a very empirical and research based approach to this stuff, though. Cheatham’s proximity to Nashville has a clear, significant, and measurable impact on access to employment, on real estate values, and on growth, regardless of how you’d characterize the style of living there or whether there are more traditional suburbs/exurbs in the Nashville area.
Consider home values, income levels, absence of population growth, and the unemployment rate in Stewart and Clay Counties, which are somewhat close to Nashville, but too far away for daily commuting or for businesses that rely on clusters of other businesses. How is Cheatham County different from these places other than being a lot closer to a major population center?
Well Tim, as a researcher outside of my JN anonymity, I am also aware that even empiricism has its limits. I have no issue with positivist approaches to research, as long as the limitations and delimitations are openly admitted (as it should be with all research). Outliers are possible too. More importantly, the epistemological assumptions underpinning one’s research are also quite important to consider.
What is perhaps unique about Cheatham County is that there are several people who commute to Nashville both to work and to spend their money. They are often not spending the money they make in the county (or “suburb”) where they live. People in the real suburbs of Nashville on the other hand, tend to spend more in the areas where they live because there are actually a number of businesses there. For example, many in Cheatham County’s southern cluster of Pegram and Kingston Springs tend to drive to my area of Nashville (Bellevue) for groceries. In fact, the school system itself is one of the two largest employers in the county. And I’m not saying this to put the county down either.
There are indeed differences between Cheatham and the counties you mentioned (are the differences statistically significant?). Likewise there are differences among the counties adjacent to Davidson County/Nashville (Cheatham tending to have the lowest numbers among them). Real estate is unique in Nashville as well; we did not take nearly the hit that the rest of the country took. What is interesting about the area is the “patchwork quality.” I live right next to Cheatham County, and I can tell you the average home value where I live is nearly $100K higher than the average home value right over the county line (and I’m not even including the double wide homes that appear one you cross the Davidson/Cheatham border on River Rd.). There just isn’t a whole lot there compared to the rest of the area; it’s not as developed. If it’s measurement that matters, compare Cheatham County’s data with Williamson County; the differences are drastic, and apparently both are “suburbs.” (Of course, I should “probably” mention that Williamson County is one of the wealthiest counties in the nation. But, hey, they’re both “suburban” according to the current classification. Besides, both are adjacent to Nashville/Davidson County. And yet, it may make a comparison between Cheatham and Clay or Stewart County seem a bit more reasonable with regard to it sharing more “rural” characteristics with them.)
I deal with measurement a lot in my work, and I constantly ask myself if the measurements are meaningful. If the answer is yes, then the measurement is useful. If the answer is no, then the measurement is useless regardless of how well the measurement was done.
Wow. Tim, who does not live here and apparently has never been here is more qualified to describe and designate than a native citizen.
That kind of hubris and privilege shows up a lot in think tank “experts.” Are you one of those?
The US Census Bureau has ascertained that this county, which at its nearest point is ~16 miles from the center of the 25th largest city in the United States, is sufficiently dense and shares a close enough economic and social link to Nashville to warrant inclusion in its core based statistical area. I don’t believe hubris and privilege had much to do with the process that led to that classification, but you can judge for yourself: https://www.census.gov/geo/reference/pdfs/fedreg/fedregv76n164.pdf
I’ve driven through Cheatham County two times, but admittedly it was more than 20 years ago (yikes). I’m sure there are parts of it that are non-populated and parts that have a rural feel, but the bottom line is that it is part of a pretty good-sized urban agglomeration.
There’s nothing suburban (or exurban) about that area (dense population or not) Tim. Come and visit; I’ll show you around. People from the southern cluster even drive over to where I live for groceries. Not much business there either. And it is the lowest paid county (for educators) in Middle TN; people who work there are dedicated.
Tim – your approach is exactly what gets the rephormers and the Obama administration in so much trouble. You can’t hop on the internet, pull up a few statistics and think you know more about the area, the situation, the problem and the solution than people who live and work in the area. If you want to understand reality, you have to experience it. And not just virtually.
Remember in the movie “Salt” there was a plot of children who were sleeper cells, spies for the Soviets? Guess that’s what TFA has become. Indoctrinate and train them while young to infiltrate and take over, because, you know, they’re better than the rest of us LIFO, lazy, tenured professional educators. And oh – by the way – they can make mad bank $$$ by doing “good” – note the “Board member and venture capitalist Landon Gibbs”.
Well, what good are children if they can’t be used as cash cows to make the already-rich slightly richer? Just the other day I heard about one “education entrepreneur” who has his eye in a 56-foot yacht. If we put the brakes on school Rhee-form he might have to settle for a 48-footer. Do we as teachers and parents REALLY want that on our consciences?
1st question: Obviously nothing!
2nd question: NO! I want them not being able to afford eating on my conscience.
There’s another equity issue going on here that has to faced and discussed. I hear a lot about “growing great leaders” for public schools.
Say I’m a young and ambitious public school employee and my goal is to run schools.
In the public school system, in the “promote from below” frame, I have to put in some time and gain additional certification, in this state I do anyway. I can’t leapfrog everyone else who also may have that plan and just declare myself “new leader”.
It would seem to be a huge incentive for people who DO want to run a school after a couple of years of experience to just jump over to the charter system. So where does that leave people who are committed to existing public schools and seek to run one someday? At a disadvantage as far as career advancement?
I don’t want to end certification and licensure in public schools, I value it, but there’s a clear advantage for people who DON’T put in time and gain experience in the charter system. That devalues the worth of persistent and experience under the public school approach.
That system is gone here in Florida. Our new superintendent (non-educator) fired al the career people and replaced them with young business people. You can’t even get an interview if you are an experienced educator. He says hiring the “best” means looking outside. Our district is now in perpetual chaos because no one knows what they are doing or where anything is at. That’s what passes for reform leadership.
It’s incredibly reckless and short-sighted and it devalues all of the things ed reformers say they value: persistence, hard work, commitment, a sense of fair play, rising on merit and a level playing field.
There’s another aspect to it that is always ignored, but it’s so obvious to me. It promotes younger people over older people.
It’s a lousy management philosophy. I would argue they’ve taken “what’s wrong with the American private sector” and infected the public sector with it.
I see the reform politicians promoting these 30 year old charter leaders when they’re selling charter schools and it amazes me they don’t seem to hear themselves, hear how this sounds to someone who may have been doing a great job in a public school for 25 years.
It must be incredibly dispiriting, not to mention that it’s biased and just wrong.
I don’t think I have anything in common with ed reformers. We value and reward wholly different things.
I could never be a business partner with these folks, let alone wanting them to run the public schools in the community in which I live and plan to stay.
It’s smash and grab, Chris, smash and grab…
TFA models many things:
– dishonesty,invariably served with a heaping of smarmy, fatuous rhetoric.
– insufferable arrogance and self-importance, usually with little or nothing to support
it.
– total lack of self-awareness of their sense of class entitlement.
– union busting and scabbing.
– condescension and patronizing the children and communities they claim to want
to “save.”
– predation, preying upon the gullibility and idealism of young people, the needs of
poor and working class communities, and upon the livelihoods of career teachers.
– greed, opportunism and the will-to-power, masked by claims of altruism.
And,as the Gods of Irony would have it, in this instance, we see it playing out in “Cheat ’em” County,Tennessee.
I have a question I’m using for politicians in state and local races re: public schools. I think the DC crowd are a lost cause, so this applies only to state and local candidates.
“What do you value about our existing public schools?”
If the answer is “I’m an agnostic!” or “I am FOR CHOICE!” that candidate is out.
I’m sick of discussing their undying fealty to charter schools. I have a public school, and I want to keep it. What does the politician value about public schools?
If he or she doesn’t value them, they aren’t going to do very well under ed reform leadership and public schools haven’t been doing very well under federal and state ed reform leadership. I’m not a teacher or a union member and I object to that. In fact, I resent paying them to weaken and undermine existing schools. I don’t think there’s a person in this country who knowingly signed on to that when they were sold “ed reform”.
Just remember that charter schools are publicly funded, so they may be what pols value in public ed.
I was thinking, too, about the comparison between ed reform and health insurance reform.
DC politicians treated the existing health insurance system with great care when they reformed it. They bent over backwards to maintain it, to the point where industry lobbyists wrote big chunks of the law.
Compare that with the absolute disregard with which the existing PUBLIC school system has been treated with ed reform. They can’t wait to bust it up and pitch it in the trash.
If only we had insurance industry lobbyists working on behalf of public schools, huh?
Chiara,
The insurance lobby is to health care as the edudeformers are to public schools.
It seems to me that this idea has been in the works or just waiting on a shelf for quite a while now. I had thought that this would be he plan a long while ago. 1/2 of Americas poor are rural, we know of the strong link between poverty and educational outcomes, so now that the reformers have established their beach head in urban areas, it’s time to move into the next region slated for conquest. Small towns and low density population areas are especially vulnerable to this kind of takeover since they may have few or only one school. It’s a microcosm of the complete takeover of NOLA public schools. The wealthier suburbs will be the last to be targeted in a concerted way.
Exactly: the urban districts were the beachhead, and will be followed by rural areas and economically distressed suburbs, where poverty is growing faster than anywhere else in the country.
Yes, fertile territory for the so-called reformers to sow with salt.
Much of Cheatham County is quite suburban, in my opinion. A lot more than a few of its residents commute to Nashville daily to work. Cheatham County also features a considerable number of super wealthy residents, with an extraordinary number of music stars, along with others who are engaged with the highly successful music industry, health care, insurance, or banking concerns. In spite of those and other advantages, for many many many years, Cheatham County’s pathetic school system has been a major part of why businesses do not locate there, not to mention the we-hate-outsiders mindset of some of the county’s native residents. My family has lived in this county since the early 1970s; prior to that, we lived in rural Bedford County; are not strangers to small-town Southern culture, nor are we carpet-baggers. We do, however, continue to deplore the negative elements of Cheatham County and the effects of those aspects on our children and grandchildren — these are what is and has long been ‘ ripping-off ‘ everyone, including ‘ the locals.’