Hillsdale loses appeals in Madison, Maury counties
The Hillsdale charter network lost twice this week, with appeals to open their American Classical Academies in Madison and Maury counties denied on Tuesday and Thursday respectively.
It wasn’t just one, but 73 reasons the Jackson-Madison County School Board denied a charter school application connected to Michigan’s Hillsdale College.
The Jackson Sun newspaper reported those reasons included negative financial impact, no safety plans, lack of rigor and an unrealistic budget.
Here’s the story from Maury County in votes that happened earlier tonight:
The Hillsdale charters now have the option of appealing to Gov. Lee’s handpicked State Charter Commission.
Already approved in Rutherford County, Hillsdale-affiliated charter network tries again in Madison, Maury counties
It seems American Classical Education, a charter school network affiliated with Hillsdale College, is not satisfied with having a charter school in just one Tennessee district.
School boards in Madison and Maury counties have until July 28 to review American Classical Education’s latest revision to its charter school applications.
The Maury County School board will vote on the new applications at July 18 meeting. While school officials with the Jackson-Madison County School System said, its board would hold a special-called meeting before the July deadline to deny or approve the resubmitted application.
The network won approval of a charter school to open in Rutherford County in 2024.
However, school boards in Madison, Maury, Montgomery, and Robertson rejected the Hillsdale applications.
In Maury County, the initial vote was 6-5 against Hillsdale. So, if the charter backers can simply switch one vote, they could see approval of a second Tennessee charter school.
Here’s what the Mayor of Maury County’s largest city has to say about Hillsdale:
Winning a second (and possibly third) charter school could put Hillsdale well on the way to the 50 charter schools Bill Lee promised in his 2022 State of the State Address.
And if the local school boards don’t approve the appeals, Hillsdale can still appeal to the State Charter Commission, whose members have all been appointed by Lee.
Why does Hillsdale want so desperately to operate charter schools in the Volunteer State? Money.
The charter network would be financed by state education funds and local property tax dollars – both enriching Hillsdale and driving up education costs for local school systems.
For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport
A report by Adam Friedman in the Tennessee Lookout suggests that Hillsdale College’s charter school network, American Classical Education, relies on curriculum closely tied to the Common Core.
Interestingly, Common Core has been banned in Tennessee and Gov. Bill Lee – who recruited Hillsdale to the state – has bragged about eradicating any traces of the curriculum from Tennessee public schools.
Public School Partners, a nonprofit organization I have been involved with, released a briefing today for Tennessee school superintendents and school boards designed to provide insight and analysis relative to the Hillsdale-Common Core Connection.
Here is that briefing:
SITUATION ANALYSIS
American Classical Education (ACE), a charter-school operator affiliated with Michigan-based Hillsdale College, is proposing to create five American Classical Academy charters based on virtually identical 500-page (+/-) applications submitted to local school boards in Madison, Maury, Montgomery, Robertson, and Rutherford counties.
ACE’s charter applications invoke the “Core Knowledge” educational theory as a key driver of curriculum and instruction for the proposed taxpayer-funded, privately run schools. Core Knowledge — a teaching method developed by theorist E. D. Hirsch, founder and chairman of the Core Knowledge Foundation — is connected to the complex and politically controversial Common Core academic standards, which are banned in Tennessee along with aligned curriculum and materials.
This briefing memo examines how ACE seeks to circumvent Tennessee law and implement Common Core-aligned curriculum and materials. Specifically, this memo explains:
How Core Knowledge, the preferred curriculum and instructional approach for Hillsdale-affiliated charter schools, is connected to Common Core;
How the Hillsdale-affiliated charter operator’s board chair in Tennessee is a longtime Common Core advocate;
How the Hillsdale-affiliated charter applications in Tennessee are seeking a waiver of state law that bans Common Core-aligned curriculum and materials; and
How Hillsdale-affiliated charter schools in other states routinely invoke Common Core alongside Core Knowledge in the fine print of their applications.
According to a 2013 profile in the New York Times, Hirsch — whose earlier work was criticized as “elitist, antiquated and narrow-minded” — found vindication in the wake of Common Core’s adoption in dozens of states. Similarly, a 2014 article published by the conservative Fordham Institute celebrated a growing recognition of the “connective tissue” between Core Knowledge and Common Core.
More recently, J.C. Bowman, executive director and CEO of Professional Educators of Tennessee, observed the deep ties between Core Knowledge and Common Core in a report by the Tennessee Lookout: “You can’t say you’re against Common Core, but for Core Knowledge. They’re both ideologically from the same place. They’re very interconnected.”
ACE BOARD CHAIR IS LONGTIME COMMON CORE ADVOCATE
Former State Senate Education Committee Chair and now ACE Board Chair Dolores Gresham is a longtime champion for Common Core.
In a 2013 op-ed published in the Tennessean, Gresham touted Common Core as promoting “critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity.” While barnstorming the state in 2014, Gresham declared during a public meeting in Memphis: “We will be using Common Core standards in public education in Tennessee.” (video 3m10s). In a heated exchange with a parent, Gresham dismissed a child’s stress over Common Core as an “isolated incident” (video 4m30s).
Despite Gresham’s efforts to sell Tennesseans on Common Core, the tide turned against the standards with critics across the political spectrum ramping up attacks. Conservative Tea Party activists, especially, opposed what they saw as federally incentivized overreach by the Obama Administration — even deriding the standards as “Obamacore.”
Policymakers representing conservative suburbs in Middle Tennessee — where ACE is now seeking to open charter schools — blasted Common Core in public statements and legislation.
DESPITE PUSHBACK, CORE KNOWLEDGE DOUBLED DOWN ON COMMON CORE
Ignoring the growing political furor in Tennessee and across the nation, Hirsch’s Core Knowledge Foundation doubled down on support of Common Core.
In a 2016 blog post in Achieve the Core (published by Common Core advocacy group Student Achievement Partners), Core Knowledge Foundation President Linda Bevilacqua wrote that the instructional design of the foundation’s language arts curriculum is not only aligned to the Common Core but “embodies the spirit and intent of the standards.”
Similarly, in a 2016 research paper, the Core Knowledge Foundation noted: “The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) establish an ambitious vision for the K-12 education system.” Moreover, the paper stated: “The Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) program meets the CCSS in ways that are consistent with the research on how children learn and on effective pedagogy.”
In a 34-page compendium of “Frequently Asked Questions” published in 2017, the Core Knowledge Foundation noted that the organization’s language arts materials, known as CKLA, are “fully, and explicitly, aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).” The document repeatedly emphasized a deep and intentional connection with statements such as: “CKLA is 100% aligned to both the knowledge-building spirit of the standards and to each of the individual standards. At the individual standard level, the alignment is explicit: It is present at the domain level and unit level, as well as the lesson level; this explicit alignment is detailed in the teacher materials for the given domain or unit.”
TENNESSEE OFFICIALLY BANS COMMON CORE STANDARDS, MATERIALS
According to Chalkbeat, Tennessee officially repealed Common Core standards in 2015 and transitioned in 2017 to revised academic standards that were billed as homegrown. Legislative efforts to purge the Volunteer State of all vestiges of Common Core persisted for several more years.
In follow-up guidance to school districts, the Tennessee Department of Education and State Board of Education explicitly noted: “When evaluating charter school applications for approval, local boards of education and other charter school authorizers will ensure that textbooks and instructional materials proposed by a charter school applicant comply with the law.” Put differently: Privately run charters, in addition to public schools, cannot utilize Common Core-aligned curriculum and materials.
ACE SEEKS WAIVER OF COMMON CORE BAN
Despite the state ban, ACE is now seeking waivers of the state law that prohibits the use of Common Core instructional materials, according to the Tennessee Lookout.
All of ACE’s charter applications in Tennessee — each signed by Gresham, the ACE board chair — include a list of 16 requested waivers from state law and policies. Near the bottom of the waiver list is an item described as “use of unapproved textbooks.” Specifically, the item requests relief from Tennessee Code Annotated 49-6-2206 — which is a statute entitled, “Use of Common Core textbooks or materials prohibited.”
ACE’s waiver requests don’t specifically mention Common Core, but instead note that the proposed schools’ “curriculum and instructional approaches will be linked to [each] school’s mission and philosophy” as well as curricular materials detailed in the applications. ACE’s curricular materials are based on Core Knowledge — which, again, is connected to Common Core.
According to ACE’s charter applications in Tennessee, the proposed schools’ K-12 Program Guide was “developed from the foundational tenets” of Core Knowledge. Further, ACE states that administrators, teachers, and staff will undergo intensive Core Knowledge training through workshops and summer programs.
OTHER HILLSDALE-AFFILIATED CHARTER OPERATORS PUSH COMMON CORE
Across the country, other Hillsdale-affiliated charter operators routinely invoke Common Core alongside Core Knowledge in the fine print of their applications. For example:
In neighboring Illinois, the 2017 application for Chicago Classical Academy pledged that student achievement would be measured against standardized tests that are “valid, reliable, and appropriately aligned with curricula and Common Core State Standards (CCSS).”
Meanwhile, Texas education officials in 2020 blasted the Hillsdale-affiliated Heritage Classical Academy over trying to slip the Common Core into the Lone Star State. In written comments, reviewers for the state education agency and state board of education noted: “The charter intends to use the Common Core aligned Core Knowledge materials, which are not aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills and have not been reviewed by Texas educators nor the SBOE.”
CONCLUSION
The evidence is clear: ACE is seeking to implement Common Core in Tennessee — with an initial focus on Madison, Maury, Montgomery, Robertson, and Rutherford counties. Core Knowledge, the preferred curriculum and instructional approach for ACE, is connected to Common Core. ACE is led by longtime Common Core advocate Dolores Gresham. Additionally, ACE is seeking a waiver from state law prohibiting the use of Common Core materials. Finally: ACE is part of a nationwide pattern in which other Hillsdale-affiliated charter operators tout Common Core-aligned materials and assessments.
A protest of Common Core organized by Americans for Prosperity
For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport
Hillsdale charters gain access to Tennessee tax dollars
Over at The Education Report, I write about how Hillsdale’s charter network has gained access to local tax dollars in Rutherford County – and how this opens the door for them to treat local taxpayers as an ATM in support of their Christian Nationalist agenda.
Ultimately, local taxpayers could end up footing a $350 million bill to support Hillsdale in Tennessee.
Here are some highlights:
Hersch explains that even when there is broad public opposition to Hillsdale’s charters (as has been the case in the Tennessee districts where Hillsdale has applied to operate), the school has found a way to foist its charters on districts.
In Tennessee, that means that even the four rejected Hillsdale charters – in Madison, Maury, Montgomery, & Robertson counties – could end up being approved by Gov. Bill Lee’s handpicked State Charter Commission.
A recent analysis of the potential fiscal impact of Hillsdale charters in Tennessee shows that if all five Hillsdale charters ultimately get approved, local taxpayers could be stuck with a tab of an additional $35 million a year.
If the school ultimately reaches Gov. Bill Lee’s promise of a network of 50 charters in Tennessee, that’s a total local taxpayer bill of $350 million a year.
For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport
The budget deficit and potential tax increase comes as the Rutherford County School Board voted 5-2 to approve an application for a charter school affiliated with Michigan-based Hillsdale College.
At least one of the School Board members in favor of the new charter, Caleb Tidwell, was backed by County Mayor Joe Carr in his campaign.
An analysis of the fiscal impact of the Hillsdale charter in Rutherford County reveals a first-year taxpayer cost of $3.4 million and a cost at full enrollment of $7 million.
Two key takeaways here:
The Rutherford County School Board has committed the district and county taxpayers to an ongoing, recurring expense of $7 million to fund a right-wing charter school that offers dubious educational value.
American Classical Academy could use the approval in Rutherford to bolster appeals to the State Charter Commission in the four other districts.
This is all part of a larger move to build a network of Hillsdale charter schools in the state that could ultimately cost local taxpayers as much as $350 million a year.
American Classical Education filed letters of intent in recent days with school districts in Madison, Montgomery, Maury, Robertson, and Rutherford counties — all growing suburban areas near Nashville. The proposed schools would open in the 2024-25 school year.
I reported in September on the early withdrawal of Hillsdale’s initial applications – in Madison, Montgomery, and Rutherford counties:
The withdrawal of the appeals, of course, doesn’t mean Hillsdale is no longer interested in Tennessee. It simply doesn’t make sense to conduct such an aggressive campaign and just walk away.
Here’s what NewsChannel5’s Phil Williams reported on the premature exit:
“We made this decision because of the limited time to resolve the concerns raised by the commission staff and our concerns that the meeting structure and timing on Oct. 5 will not allow commissioners to hear directly from the community members whose interests lie at the heart of the commission’s work,” board chair Dolores Gresham wrote in a letter delivered Thursday to the commission.
Gresham, it’s worth noting, is a former Chair of the Senate Education Committee and a legislator with a long history of supporting efforts to shift public money to private schools.
As Williams notes in his story, Hillsdale had asked for a delay in the vote – that is, they had still hoped to appeal and to win those appeals.
This seems to indicate the schools will continue their PR offensive and hope to shift public opinion in order to secure public funds for their Christian nationalist vision.
In short, those predicting Hillsdale’s return were right.
Gov. Lee made his pact with Hillsdale clear in his State of the State in January of this year. Now, it seems Hillsdale and Lee are ready to make good on that promise – the promise of turning over local tax dollars to support what is essentially private, Christian education.
This comes at a significant cost to local taxpayers, of course.
I’ve noted before that if the schools were to open according to Hillsdale’s stated plan, school districts would lose millions in funding in year one alone – and that funding loss would be compounded going forward:
Here’s the deal: 2023 is the first year of school funding under the new, TISA model. This means the charters stand to get more money – based of just under $7000 per student PLUS weights for a variety of categories.
Taking it at just the base, though, each of these districts stands to lose nearly $2.3 million in funding in YEAR ONE of the charter school opening.
Another area of concern? Hillsdale’s call for violent revolution to “overthrow” public education.
In a recent issue of Hillsdale’s newsletter – Imprimis – President Larry Arnn talks about the current “culture wars” and notes that the battle for public schools has “not yet” necessitated violence.
I have said and written many times that the political contest between parents and people who make an independent living, on the one hand, and the administrative state and all its mighty forces on the other, is the key political contest of our time. Today that seems truer than ever. The lines are clearly formed.
***
As long as our representative institutions work in response to the public will, there is thankfully no need for violence.
What does this mean? Does it mean that in states like Tennessee, where political pushback caused Hillsdale to pause its attempt to establish charter schools, violence may eventually be necessary?
For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport
Controversial Michigan-based charter school operator Hillsdale College brought its roadshow to Rutherford County this week and parents and public school advocates spoke out against the school locating in their community.
Nashville’s NewsChannel5 reported on the events surrounding a hearing conducted by the Tennessee State Charter School Commission. While the Rutherford County School Board rejected Hillsdale-affiliated American Classical Academy’s charter application, the school has appealed to the unelected state board to override the local decision. All members of the Commission were appointed by current governor and charter school supporter Bill Lee.
The Hillsdale-affiliated American Classical Academy is asking the commission to overturn the decision by the Rutherford County school board to deny their application for taxpayer funding for their privately operated charter school.
Rutherford County officials argue that the Hillsdale schools do not have a good track record when it comes to students with disabilities, those who are economically disadvantaged and the lowest performing children.
Here’s what Rutherford County Schools had to say about the Hillsdale application:
Hillsdale College Larry Arnn is mad that people in Tennessee are telling the truth about his intentions. He’s even more mad that he was caught on tape making disparaging remarks about teachers and colleges of education. He’s not sorry about what he said. He’s made that clear. He IS sorry that when he told the truth, it disrupted his plans to shift public money to his private school pushing a Christian Nationalist agenda by way of Hillsdale-affiliated charter schools.
Now, Hillsdale is texting Tennesseans with a link to a page that tells the “truth” about Hillsdale.
Phil Williams of NewsChannel5 has more:
After the huge backlash against @Hillsdale president Larry Arnn saying public school teachers come from "the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges," @GovBillLee's friends are now texting parents with a PR message that Arnn was "telling the truth." https://t.co/KBJEXBwWr5
Here’s the deal: Hillsdale-affiliated charters were rejected by three Tennessee school boards. All three have since appealed to the State Charter Commission. If those appeals are successful, Hillsdale-affiliated charters will open in Tennessee in 2023. They’ll get public money to advance their extreme agenda.
Despite rhetoric from GOP legislators suggesting that Tennessee will “sever ties” with controversial Hillsdale College, it now appears that all three charter schools with a Hillsdale affiliation are appealing to the State Charter Commission to overturn local school board decisions. If approved, the charter schools would open in Madison, Montgomery, and Rutherford counties in 2023.
BREAKING: A Hillsdale College-affiliated charter school operator has now asked a state commission to override local school boards in Rutherford County and Clarksville-Montgomery County. https://t.co/ctuocudygr
While I don’t normally do this, I’m going to go ahead and suggest that the Hillsdale charters will all be approved. Believe me, I’d love to write a story about the denial of all three applications. But that won’t happen.
Here’s the deal: When you vote for Bill Lee’s charter commission, you vote to allow Lee to override local school boards and install whatever charter he likes. When you vote to open the door to charters, you vote to erode local control. When you fail to stop Lee’s agreement with Hillsdale during the 2022 legislative session, you have already decided the wishes of your local school board and county commission don’t matter. By supporting Lee’s backdoor privatization agenda, you have told voters in your communities that they don’t matter.
This development is not at all surprising. It is exactly the kind of scheme Bill Lee promised even before he was a candidate for governor back in 2018. It is what his campaign was about. If there was any doubt, he erased it 100% in his 2022 State of the State.
These three counties are not the end. If Lee and his General Assembly allies have their way, there will be 50 or more Hillsdale charters in communities across the state. Vouchers, too, will take public dollars and funnel them to private schools.
This has been the plan all along, and Bill Lee is executing that plan no matter what he says in the face of pressure from reporters.
While the controversy over remarks made by Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn has Republicans – including Gov. Bill Lee – arguing with Bill Lee’s vision for a Hillsdale takeover of Tennessee public education, that hasn’t stopped Hillsdale-affiliated charter schools from continuing the quest for Tennessee tax dollars.
Phil Williams of NewsChannel5 reports that a Hillsdale-affiliated charter school in Madison County has appealed to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission to overturn the local decision to reject the school:
BREAKING: Hillsdale-affiliated charter schools will attempt end-run around local school boards. That group, American Classical Academy, has now formally asked the TN Public Charter School Commission to overrule Jackson-Madison County Schools. 1/ pic.twitter.com/ZTSB2qdM75
And, as Williams notes, while the school claims to be “separate” from Hillsdale, the top three proposed board members (Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary) are all current employees of Hillsdale.
I’ve written a lot about Hillsdale, and you can find a good summary of that here.
If, as Gov. Lee most recently said, a group of Hillsdale charter’s is “not his vision,” then now would be a good time for him to speak up and discourage the American Classical Academy from pursuing its appeal.
Of course, he won’t do that. While I’d love to write an article that says the state charter board has denied this appeal (and the likely similar appeals in Montgomery and Rutherford counties), I seriously doubt that will be the case.
Here’s what American Classical has to say about its work in Tennessee:
K-5 CLASSICAL CHARTER SCHOOLS WILL OPEN IN THESE TENNESSEE COUNTIES IN FALL 2023 (emphasis added).
It doesn’t say they’ve applied to open, or that in cooperation with local school boards, they plan to open. It says, “will open.”
And, despite the resounding rejection by local school boards, American Classical is appealing to the state charter commission which could greenlight them to open in 2023.
The American Classical site also includes this note about the schools it (so far) plans to open in 2023:
Montgomery County Classical Academy will begin by serving Kindergarten-Grade 5 with a planned enrollment of 325 students in our first year and add a grade each year until the school can offer a complete K-12 classical education experience.
That same verbiage is included in Madison and Rutherford counties.
Here’s the deal: 2023 is the first year of school funding under the new, TISA model. This means the charters stand to get more money – based of just under $7000 per student PLUS weights for a variety of categories.
Taking it at just the base, though, each of these districts stands to lose nearly $2.3 million in funding in YEAR ONE of the charter school opening.
While it may SEEM that the transfer of students would lead to a corresponding reduction in local costs, it likely won’t. First, it’s not like these students will all come from the same zone or school, so reducing staff at schools is unlikely. At best, you’d be looking at 2-3 teaching position reductions.
The districts, though, will still have the same fixed costs – transportation, building operation and maintenance, etc. They’ll just have about $2 million LESS to use to operate.
Here’s some insight from the costs associated with charters in Nashville:
In short, thanks to Bill Lee’s vision (the one he’s now trying to unsee), these three districts are likely to see a significant funding hit in 2023. And Hillsdale is likely to be cashing in on Tennessee tax dollars to advance its agenda of evangelical exceptionalism.
