TN stripped local district of 3.4 million for refusing charter school that asked $1,200 of parents. [View all]

[madfloridian]

There is debate now by the school district on whether to sue over this situation. The Tennessee Education Commissioner is Kevin Huffman. He is/was Vice President of Teach for America, TFA, and is the former husband of Michelle Rhee.

There should be outrage from the country that a charter school will get taxpayer money and still be allowed to ask 12 to 15 hundred from parents plus other fees.

Great Hearts admits the fees, but claims they are optional.

A controversial charter school expected to be approved tonight by the Metro Nashville school board (Note: it was voted down 5-4) asks families in its Arizona schools to ante up a $1,200 gift, a separate $200 tax credit contribution, and a few hundred dollars in book and classroom fees.

However, a Great Hearts Academies official says the schools are free and that even the book fees will be waived if necessary.

“It is 100 percent clear to everyone in our schools that those are optional contributions,” said Peter Bezanson, president of Great Hearts Tennessee, the nonprofit management company set up for the five schools Great Hearts hopes to open in Nashville.

Here is more background on this from September.

The Tennessee Department of Education is withholding $3.4 million of non-classroom, administrative funding from Metro Nashville Public Schools due to the school board’s failure to comply with the state’s charter school law, the Jackson Sun reports.

Last week, the Metro Nashville school board disobeyed an order by the state Board of Education to approve an application from the Phoenix-based Great Hearts Academies, which it had already twice rejected.

The Associated Press reports that members of the school board raised concerns that the proposed charter school planned to draw from affluent white families, as opposed to cultivating a more diverse student body. They voted 5-4 to deny Great Hearts’ application, ignoring a unanimous order from the state school board to approve it.

Diane Ravitch covered this well in her blog last week.

[link:http://dianeravitch.net/2012/11/08/to-sue-or-not-to-sue-that-is-the-question/|
To Sue or Not to Sue: That is the Question]

In Nashville, two new members of the school board debate whether the Metro Nashville school board should sue the state for withholding $3.4 million to punish the board.

TFA Commissioner of Education Kevin Huffman, who is devoted to charter schools and privatization, withheld the $3.4 million from Nashville to punish the board because it rejected an application from the Great Hearts charter corporation of Arizona. The board did not like the fact that Great Hearts had a defective plan for diversity, would locate in an affluent neighborhood, and has a reputation for requiring an upfront “contribution” of $1200-1500 from families.

Great Hearts looks like, smells like, sounds like a publicly funded school for affluent families. The board didn’t like that. It rejected Great Hearts four times.

Huffman, who once was a teacher for two years but has no other relevant experience to be a state commissioner, was furious. He held back $3.4 million from the district.

This goes way beyond the frequent arguments we hear. It goes beyond the "charter schools are public schools" argument. It goes beyond the premise that charter schools are necessary because "public schools are failing".

It reveals starkly that too many times it is all about profit and more profit. This school was to be in an affluent area. I think most got the right idea....that a lot of the education "reform" is about re-segregation.

And the "reformers" are managing to do all this on the public's dime.

Where's the outrage?