Jesse Register, the Director of Metro Nashville public schools, proposes to close a number of low-performing schools and replace them with charter schools, despite the fact that the state’s all-charter Achievement School District has not outperformed public schools.
Parents, community members, and teachers are upset by his lurch to the corporate model. Where is the school board, whose majority supports public schools? Why did Jesse Register drink the privatization Kool-aid?
Just bear in mind that New Orleans Recovery School District is one of the lowest performing districts in the state.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yikes! We’ve really run off the rails. I wonder who really signs Jesse’s check? I believe it is the taxpayers. Does that register with Jesse Register? I wonder?
With Register probably leaving by next year, the real question will be, “Who has offered him a job?” It seems like he’s already being paid by someone else.
The ASD schools in Memphis have lower test scores than the public schools… Lower than the public schools they took over! It has been 2 years and this isn’t working (except for the charter operators who are getting big bucks)
The “crisis!” language again. It has to be fast, fast, fast! People who tell you not to think through something because there is a “crisis!” should be viewed very warily.
It’s manipulative. It’s fear-based sales, and people who are frightened make poor decisions.
Why can they never sell this positively? It’s always the same. I guess they keep going back to it because it works.
This is just more evidence that the corporate driven, manufactured, fake education reform movement doesn’t care anything about education. This is about getting rid of the democratically run public schools to get at the tax money that supports those schools.
The profit driven, private sector must be drooling at the annual trillion dollars in taxes that supports the public education.
I imagine that people like Michelle Rhee and Eva Moskowitz can hardly wait for the seven figure salaries they will pay themselves as the CEO’s of private-sector Corporate run school districts the size of New York and Los Angeles.
Under these types of people, the schools will become concentration camps for kids.
NCLB, Race to the Top and CCSS have nothing to do with improving educatoin and everything to do with destroying it.
Boy, I’d hate to be a public school kid (or parent) in Nashville. The person you’re paying to run your public schools just let you know he’ll be abandoning them here shortly.
Let the relinquishing begin! Get out while you can. He’s got no interest in your schools. Running public schools is HARD. Better to outsource it.
I’ve noticed that Jesse Register seems to be trying harder to please the business community. I don’t know the reason, but I found this bit of info in a recent Tennessean article interesting:
“Register says he enjoys living in Nashville. After moving here, he met and married Ellen Thornton, former executive director of the Tennessee Business Roundtable.”
Here is the link to the full article:
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/education/2014/09/04/jesse-register-crossroads-leading-nashville-schools/15045869/
I watched part of the debate on Common Core last night, and I’d just like to mention that the principal had the more difficult role. The problem was, she objects to the Common Core for reasons that differ than that of her debate partner, who is some kind of conservative think-tanker.
Contrast that with the other side, who were singing in chorus.
It’s as if you held a trial with two lawyers on each side to argue a motion, but one side had two lawyers who didn’t agree on WHY they opposed the motion. It wouldn’t happen, because it doesn’t make any sense and it puts one side at a disadvantage.
It was quite literally two against one and then two against the other one. That’s not really fair, in terms of advocacy. I know it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things but that principal had the much more difficult job, and there’s an easily identifiable reason for that.
The state-run district hasn’t done as well as district initiates to turn around schools. Plain and simple. http://www.bluffcityed.com/2014/09/just-facts-asd-vs-izone-performance/
It appears that if you take choice out of the equation, charters don’t do so well either.
http://www.bluffcityed.com/2014/09/just-facts-asd-vs-izone-performance-part-2/
I am scheduled to attend a coffee with Dr. Register tomorrow morning about the impact of his administration’s policies on North Nashville schools.
We pulled our youngest (now a 5th grader) from Metro Nashville Public Schools last year for reasons I explained via WordPress 13 months ago:
Another community leader organizing the coffee saw fit to invite former parents of MNPS students as well. I am thankful for that, because we are still personally invested in North Nashville public schools, parents and students.
The discussion should be interesting in light of Dr. Register’s controversial proposal for East Nashville.
Go get ’em Mike!
I look back on my days in school and I see a tremendous amount of pressure put on these children. They have taken away the recess period and the lunch period is down to 25 minutes. All they hear is tests and scores. I am all for a good education and studying. Alot of these parents are not educated and cannot help their children with
homework. I think we need to enlarge the GED program to help the uneducated parents.
I work for an nonprofit organization called Back Field In Motion that has an after school program that tutors these children. We have a Mothers Night Out for their parents where we talk about the problems with getting an education. Some of us don’t have any idea what some of these children go thru every day. I think we need to start programs after school and help the children that need the help. Some of them need one on one help that the teachers in our system do not have the time. This would enable the parents to get better jobs and support their families.