Slush Fund

Governor Bill Lee’s charter school slush fund is in full force, with millions in grant dollars heading out the door to charter schools and millions more slated to be awarded by a competitive grant process. Chattanooga’s NewsChannel9 has the story:

Tennessee education officials are distributing almost $5.9 million in grants to aid 117 charter schools in the state.

The Department of Education announced Monday that the grants account for about half of the $12 million allocated to the department’s Charter Schools Facilities fund in Gov. Bill Lee’s budget.

The money can be spent on property purchases to relocate or establish schools; general improvements to facilities, purchasing or leasing underused or vacant property; or existing capital outlay projects.

Lee has committed himself to a school privatization agenda that includes a school voucher scheme, this slush fund, and a state commission designed to fast-track charter schools by usurping the authority of local school boards.

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The Playbook

Dr. Bill Smith of Johnson City clearly and succinctly describes the playbook for school privatizers in recent piece in the Johnson City Press:

A popular refrain of conservative politicians has been the assertion that America has tried everything possible to improve its schools. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our leaders certainly have not done everything possible to help the schools facing the greatest challenges. Instead, they have repeatedly applied one ill-conceived policy prescription: testing children and shaming and punishing educators when the results aren’t deemed acceptable.

For almost two decades we have clung to this approach as if it is a matter of faith. As economic and racial inequalities in academic performance have persisted, our leaders have doubled down with increased determination. To them there is never any consideration of the possibility that so-called accountability measures might not be the solution to all educational concerns. If schools don’t succeed, it’s their fault. They are failures.

By purposefully characterizing schools in poor urban and rural areas as “failing schools,” elected officials have promoted the view that these schools are beyond redemption. Not surprisingly, these leaders now feel empowered to suggest that the only way forward is give up on struggling schools and enact voucher and charter programs.

That’s it. That’s the game. That’s the playbook used by Governor Bill Lee and those like him who wish to advance a school privatization agenda. Former Governor Haslam played this game, too.

Test. Punish. Underfund. Repeat. Until the results are so abundantly clear that the “only hope” is privatization.

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OVERTURNED

The State Board of Education has usurped the authority of the Metro Nashville school board by overturning the decision by MNPS to close Knowledge Academies.

More from Fox17 in Nashville:

The Tennessee State Board of Education voted to overturn all three of the Nashville Public Schools board’s decision to close Knowledge Academies at the end of the semester.

In August, the MNPS Board of Education unanimously voted to revoke the charter of Knowledge Academies:

The district said the schools aren’t meeting performance goals and aren’t keep their financial books properly.

The move by the state board of education comes as Governor Bill Lee’s school privatization commission prepares to begin operation.

It also comes as the Shelby County School Board voted to revoke the charter granted to Southwest Early College High.

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Beavis and Bevin

As if any voter in Kentucky cares, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has endorsed fellow Republican Matt Bevin in Bevin’s bid to hold on to the Governor’s seat in Kentucky.

Erik Schelzig of the Tennessee Journal reports:

Lee appeared at a Bevin campaign stop at the Casey Jones Distillery in western Kentucky on Friday. The first year Tennessee governor said Bevin had encouraged him to run last year, and that he was inspired by Bevin’s “outsider” status.

“He, too, came from the business world and he understands that the status quo and establishment is not the way to move the Commonwealth of Kentucky forward,” the Hoptown Chronicle quoted Lee as saying. “The way to move forward is to break and challenge the status quo.”

Lee and Bevin have a lot in common, including a stunning incompetence when it comes to governing.

On education issues, Bevin has advanced charter schools, sought to destroy teacher pensions, and suggested teacher strikes caused children to be vulnerable to sexual assault.

For his part, Bill Lee has advanced an aggressive charter expansion agenda while watching the FBI investigate both the House vote on his voucher legislation and the Senate sponsor of the voucher bill. In fact, the fight over vouchers threatens to divide the House GOP.

Lee and Bevin are truly two peas in a pod.

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Promises, Promises

A charter school in Memphis that makes big promises to students and parents is failing to deliver, according to a report from WMC-TV. Apparently, Southwest Early College High is on the verge of closing following the outcome of a district investigation into the school that found:

SCS posted the results of its investigation along with a presentation online, outlining why the school’s charter should be revoked immediately.

The district says SECH relied on unlicensed teachers in multiple classes; failed to provide proper services to special needs students; and lost its partnership with Southwest Tennessee Community College, where the school is located, because students weren’t receiving the academic and socio-emotional support needed. The presentation also said the school had “no institutional control.”

Now, students are left behind — victims of a market-based approach to education. This approach, advanced by conservatives and neo-liberals alike, is a distraction from the real challenges facing students. It’s easier for some adults to chase the shiny, new object than to actually dig in and make systemic change.

Governor Bill Lee, for example, is all-in on the voucher and charter agenda because that’s easier politically than tackling challenges like access to healthcare and generational poverty.

Solutions to these problems exist and they’d help kids and families get ahead. Instead of pursuing them, though, our policymakers and their privatizing friends keep making new promises.

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Lee Announces Leaders of School Privatization Commission

Governor Bill Lee this week announced the members of his state charter school commission, a group tasked with usurping the power of local school boards and fast-tracking charter schools with little accountability. Here’s more on the members from Chalkbeat:

  • Tom Griscom, of Hamilton County, a former director of White House communications under President Ronald Reagan, long-time aide to the late U.S. Sen. Howard Baker of Tennessee, and former executive editor and publisher of the Times Free Press in Chattanooga
  • David Hanson, of Davidson County, is managing partner of Hillgreen, a private investment firm, and serves on the board for Teach for America and Nashville-based charter network Valor Collegiate Academies. 
  • Alan Levine, of Washington County in East Tennessee, CEO of Ballad Health and a one-time adviser to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush
  • Terence Patterson, of Shelby County, is the CEO of the Memphis Education Fund and former head of the Downtown Memphis Commission. He was also the chief of staff for Chicago Public Schools, later becoming the director of the Office of New Schools in Chicago, where he managed 113 new charter schools.
  • Mary Pierce, of Davidson County, was a leading charter school advocate during her one term as a school board member with Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools.
  • Christine Richards, of Shelby County, a former general counsel for FedEx
  • Derwin Sisnett, of Shelby County, co-founded Gestalt Community Schools, a Memphis-based charter school network. He is the founder and managing partner of Maslow Development Inc., a nonprofit organization that develops communities around high performing schools.
  • Eddie Smith of Knox County, is a Republican who served in the Tennessee House of Representatives from 2014 until 2018, when he was ousted by Democrat Gloria Johnson.
  • Wendy Tucker, of Williamson County, is an attorney and adjunct professor at Vanderbilt School of Law. A member of the state Board of Education since 2014, she has been an advocate of children with special needs.

For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport

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Don’t Believe the Hype

A new study from the U.S. Department of Education indicates that charter schools perform no better than traditional public schools. Newsweek has more:


A new report from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) finds that charter school and public school students have the same academic performance in testing conducted at the fourth- and eighth-grade level.


“In 2017, at grades 4 and 8, no measurable differences in average reading and mathematics scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) were observed between students in traditional public and public charter schools,” the “School Choice in the United States: 2019” report found.

Despite these findings, Governor Bill Lee continues to make expanding charter schools a top policy priority. He increased funding for a charter school building fund this year and also successfully pushed legislation to create a new charter authorizing commission.

While policymakers like Lee hype non-solutions, evidence from actual schools suggests an urgent need to address poverty:

Districts with concentrated poverty face two challenges: Students with significant economic needs AND the inability of the district to generate the revenue necessary to adequately invest in schools.

Nevertheless, it seems Bill Lee and his allies will remain content to chase the latest shiny object and avoid a serious examination of policies that have the potential to change lives.

For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport

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Killer Recruiting

RePublic Charter School in Nashville is under fire after reports the school hired a substitute who had shot and killed the brother of two students there.

NewsChannel5’s Ben Hall has more:

But that feeling of safety was shattered Friday when the twins had a substitute teacher in their math class. It was Khadijah Griffis, the same woman who had shot and killed their older brother last month.


“They were put in the room with their brother’s killer and they were tormented by this woman,” Scott said.


Scott said other students at the school actually knew Griffis because she had been a substitute there before. She said some students even asked her how she had gotten away with shooting someone.

How did this happen?


The twins attend RePublic High School which is a Metro charter school that uses two temp agencies to fill substitute teaching positions. Scott cannot believe Griffis was hired despite numerous news articles about what happened.

RePublic says it will suspend using substitute teachers from the company that recommended Griffis until it receives further assurances.

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Making Failure Great Again

Governor Bill Lee has made no secret of his desire to expand charter schools across Tennessee. From doubling the funding available for charter school facilities to creating a “Super Charter Authorizer” that will override local school boards, Lee has made clear his disdain for public schools. A report from the Network for Public Education offers insight into why this strategy is destined to fail.

The report examines funds distributed by the US Department of Education’s Charter Schools Program and finds an alarmingly high 40% failure rate. Tennessee, always a national leader in the wrong categories, exceeds the national average with a 49% failure rate. Here’s more from the report specific to Tennessee:


Tennessee which has a 49 percent grantee failure rate, gave 38 grants of $10,000 each to schools that not only did not have a NCES number, they also did not have a listed name. Where did that $380,000 go? Apparently, the Department of Education has no idea.

Here’s more on the “success” of charters in Tennessee:

One hundred and twenty-one grants were given to open or expand charter schools in Tennessee from the federal charter schools program between 2006-2014. At this time, at least 59 (49%) of those charter schools are now closed or never opened at all. Fourty-three of the 59 grant recipients never opened at all.


Of the 43 that never opened, 38 did not even have a name. Only a grant amount was listed.

How much was spent on failed charter schools?

In total, $7,374,025.00 were awarded to Tennessee charter schools during those years that either never opened or shut down

This is the future Bill Lee wants for Tennessee — schools that never open or shut down just a few weeks into the year. Cash giveaways to private entities with little to no track record of positive impact. Taxpayer dollars wasted in the name of “choice” and the “free market.”

Bill Lee and his team of privatizers surely know these facts. They also don’t care. Steady, reliable service to the DeVos agenda of using public money to support private schools is all that matters.

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Epic Recruiting

An Oklahoma virtual charter school used shady (though legal) tactics to recruit teachers … and there’s more. The Enid News & Eagle reports:

Davis never signed up with Epic for any emails, and he had never given them his home address. Turns out, Epic had acquired his contact information, and that of thousands of other certified public school teachers across the state, through different means.

On April 5, Epic spokeswoman Shelly Hickman sent an open records request to the Oklahoma State Department of Education asking for physical addresses of every person certified to teach in the state of Oklahoma. 

Why might this matter to Tennessee? Because Governor Bill Lee was successful in securing passage of legislation creating an independent state charter authorizer. It’s the type of body that could enable groups like Epic to engage in the same sort of aggressive recruiting tactics. Additionally, current lawsuits in Tennessee seem likely to end up forcing Nashville and Memphis to turn over student data to charter operators.

Here’s more about Epic:

Last week Oklahoma Watch published a story in which “at least seven former teachers” claimed Epic administrators had been “allowing, encouraging or pressuring” teachers to withdraw poor-performing students in order to boost employee bonus pay. The school, in a response written by two former journalists who’ve been hired by Epic to teach journalism, denied the allegations. Oklahoma Watch executive editor David Fritze published a note on Monday saying the organization stands by its reporting.

And:

Some students were allegedly enrolled at Epic and various private schools simultaneously, something that could violate the law as public funds cannot be used to aid private schools. Epic receives tens of millions of dollars each year in state funds. It is operated by Epic Youth Services, a for-profit that collects a 10 percent cut of the school’s revenues each year.

Here you have a virtual charter school set up as a non-profit and being used as a conduit to funnel state dollars to a private entity. This scenario should be cause for concern for Tennessee policymakers and school boards alike.

The bottom line: Entities like Epic not only carry significant cost to local districts, but they also work to turn public money into private profits.

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