Tennessee was one of the first two states to win a Race to the Top grant, so of course the governor and legislature are busy thinking of how to privatize their public schools. They heard glowing (if erroneous) reports about the parent trigger in California, so they want one too. They are thinking of vouchers and charters. The only awkward thing is the abject failure of the Tennessee Virtual Academy, a K12 school that is in the bottom 11% of he state’s schools.
Reading about their deliberations reminds me of one of Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander’s slogans from many years ago. He used to say of Congress: “Cut their pay and send them home.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Are all their staffers products of the public schools within the last 10-20 years? That might explain the incredible lack of ability to provide a complete research picture of these less than successful reform ventures. I don’t mean to let the legislators off the hook, but it is so frustrating to watch supposedly intelligent people ignore the mounting evidence against so much of the reform agenda.
Tennessee actually already has a parent trigger law: “The state laws allows for the conversion of an existing public school to an outside charter organization if parents of 60 percent of children enrolled at the school or 60 percent of the school’s teachers agree to the move by signing a petition. There’s one key catch, however, in Tennessee’s law that weakens the trigger: local charter authorizers — the Metro school board, for example — must approve the conversion to complete the takeover. Parents can’t appeal the decision to the state.”
http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/parent-trigger-story-can-happen-nashville-promoter-says-film-screening
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina and commented:
Not far behind here in Delaware, the other of the two.
Lamar Alexander, Tenn.’s senior senator, pioneered private use of public funds for education in his wife’s preschool programs over 20 hrs ago, shortly after governorship. There were investigations. Next thing you know, Edison Project springs up in Knoxville, builds a palatial nat’l HQ, which it abandoned & sold to the United States for courtrooms & offices. Bill Frist directs an education reform nonprofit, SCORE. It’s quiet aim is to promote privatization.
Current officials are their progeny.
No wonder Tenn. got first fruits of RTTT, and no wonder Tenn. at forefront of privatization: Long-standing practice.
Reblogged this on Students are Enough.
Wow… I’ve seen so much “reform” in TN over the years and so little real improvement. So many silver bullets and no real targets… The only thing I liked in the article was the idea to ban online K-12 schools.
Arizona’s Governor, Jan Brewer, put all the distructional education in by executive order in 2010, now they are wondering how they are going to pay for it! Typical!