Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee invited Larry Arnn, president of Hillsdale College, to open 100 charter schools in Tennessee. Arnn scaled it back to 50, but Hillsdale’s patriotic charters are not getting a warm welcome in the state. A third district rejected an “American Classical Academy.” It seems they like their local public schools and don’t want to divert money away from them. The teachers are their neighbors, and the school board knows them and respects them.
A charter school program tied to the controversial Hillsdale College suffered a third rejection by a Tennessee school board Tuesday night as the Clarksville-Montgomery County school board said it wanted nothing to do with the school pushed by Gov. Bill Lee.
With no debate, the Board of Education unanimously voted to reject the application of the Hillsdale-affiliated American Classical Academy. That follows similar votes by school boards in Rutherford County and Madison County.
The group could still appeal to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission, which can override the local school board.
School board member Jimmie Garland said Lee needs to understand that local residents do not want a privately operated charter school siphoning taxpayer dollars from a school system that is already serving the community’s needs.
“I am asking him if he sends them here, that he pay for it — not the community, not the Clarksville-Montgomery County school system, not the 200,000-plus residents of Clarksville,” Garland told NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
“We shouldn’t have to foot that bill.”
The community school board was aware of Arnn’s absurd and insulting claim that anyone can teach, and they didn’t like it.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Its good that this community has the sense to avoid these people. I only hope that others follow suit. Hillsdale is clearly owned by the DeVos family and very heavily influenced by their beliefs that public schools just might be better, and truly more democratic……These destroyers of public education must be stopped at every opportunity!
Susan,
I agree with you. BTW- Hillsdale also reflects the influence of Clarence and Ginni Thomas and Leonard Leo. The Center for Media and Democracy has a profile of Leo, describing his religious affiliation.
YES, it is important to have precedent: may the news spread widely
Since the final decision doesn’t belong to the elected school boards of public school districts, I think it is a safe bet that the fascists ruling that red state will overrule them and force those schools on communities that don’t want them.
Tennessee has a Republican trifecta and a Republican triplex. The Republican Party controls the offices of governor, secretary of state, attorney general, and both chambers of the state legislature.
As of July 21, 2022, there are 23 Republican trifectas, 14 Democratic trifectas, and 13 divided governments where neither party holds trifecta control.
As of July 21, 2022, there are 22 Republican triplexes, 18 Democratic triplexes, and 10 divided governments where neither party holds triplex control.
A state government trifecta is a term to describe when one political party holds majorities in both chambers of the state legislature and the governor’s office.
Since the majority of voters in these hard core red state put these fascists in power, they affectively voted to end their democratic form of government to insure that whatever protections that exist in that state’s constitution are worthless since the extreme rights autocrats, theocrats and fascists tend to ignore the rule of law and do whatever they want.
Meaning: Dear Tennessee voters, your majority voted away your freedom of choice, except the freedoms for men to rape women and anyone to buy weapons of mass destruction. Since Tennessee is on the list of these states, it is also legal to murder anyone at anytime, anywhere. All the shooter/murderer has to do is read what to say form a card supplied by the NRA after killing someone. In short, say and repeat to the police when they arrive, “I feared for my life.”
“A stand-your-ground law (sometimes called “line in the sand” or “no duty to retreat” law) provides that people may use deadly force when they reasonably believe it to be necessary to defend against certain violent crimes (right of self-defense). Under such a law, people have no duty to retreat before using deadly force in self-defense, so long as they are in a place where they are lawfully present.[1] The exact details vary by jurisdiction.”