As Rutherford County Faces Budget Deficit, School Board Grants Tax Money to Hillsdale Charter School

New school could drain $7 million a year from county coffers

Rutherford County is facing a serious budget crisis that could lead to a tax increase and the local school board just voted to exacerbate the problem.

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.

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Rutherford School Board Approves Hillsdale Charter School

Gov. Bill Lee recruited Hillsdale College of Michigan to open a network of charter schools in the state – a plan he announced last year in his State of the State Address.

Last year, Hillsdale applied to open “American Classical Academy” in three districts – Jackson-Madison, Clarksville-Montgomery, and Rutherford County.

All three rejected Hillsdale and the charters then appealed to the State Charter Commission. Eventually, though, they withdrew those appeals.

Instead, they would submit new applications in five districts – Maury, Montgomery, Madison, Robertson, and Rutherford.

School boards in Maury, Montgomery, and Robertson counties rejected Hillsdale’s new applications.

However, last night, the Rutherford County School Board voted 5-2 to approve a Hillsdale charter that would open in 2024.

More from the Daily News Journal:

The elected school board voted 5-2, to approve the ACA charter school application that would establish a free public charter school in the county. Board members Coy Young and Shelia Bratton voted in opposition. The school would start by 2024-25 serving 340 students in grades K-5 and phase in grades until reaching 690 students through 12th grade by 2029-30.

An analysis of the fiscal impact of the Hillsdale charter on Rutherford County reveals that at full capacity, the new school would drain some $7 million a year from local tax revenue.

Fixed costs account for at least 40 percent of some school districts’ budgets. Nationwide, Moody’s Investors Service found that a growing number of school districts face “financial stress” due to fixed costs. In Nashville, an independent study found that charter schools would, “with nearly 100 percent certainty, have a negative fiscal impact” on the local school district’s budget.

In 2024, when the school opens, it is expected to carry a fixed cost to the district of more than $3 million.

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2023 Legislative Summary

Over at The Education Report, I’ve written about the recently concluded legislative session.

Here are a couple highlights:

As the General Assembly finished its business this week, legislation that would expand the state’s fledgling voucher program (now confined to Memphis and Nashville) to Chattanooga was finally passed.

To be clear, it had been passed in the Senate before.

The House, however, was eager to get vouchers into even more communities – and so added an amendment that would add Knox County to the mix.

Ultimately, Knox County was NOT added – but let’s be clear: The legislature wants full-on privatization of the state’s public schools.

What’s up with third grade?

Tennessee now has a third grade retention law – meaning that students who don’t hit a certain benchmark on the state’s 3rd grade TNReady test MUST repeat third grade OR participate in remediation, including a summer reading program. Some estimates suggest more than 60% of students would be subject to the law’s requirements and around half of those may ultimately repeat third grade.

The legislature did so SOME tinkering – but it won’t help this year’s kids.

MORE from Chalkbeat:

Unless the full legislature intervenes before adjourning in the next few weeks, this year’s decisions on who gets held back or sent to remedial programs will be based solely on TCAP reading test results. That’s the current criterion under a 2021 law that lawmakers passed in response to pandemic learning losses.

If the proposed revisions are approved as expected, the state would widen criteria beginning with the 2023-24 school year to consider results from a second state-provided benchmark test, too — but only for third graders who score as “approaching” proficiency on their TCAP.

Guns in Schools?

Gov. Bill Lee did ultimately propose the adoption of a Red Flag Law – but no GOP member of the House or Senate rose up to sponsor it in the legislature’s final days.

Now, Lee is calling a special session to focus specifically on gun violence and public safety.

It’s not yet clear whether GOP lawmakers will back this effort pushed by their party’s leader.

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Georgia On Our Mind?

Tennessee lawmakers appear determined to expand vouchers to both Chattanooga and Knoxville this year. In fact, the Senate has already passed legislation expanding the state’s Education Savings Account (ESA) program to Chattanooga at the request of Hamilton County state Senator Todd Gardenhire. Now, the House may add Knox County to the voucher expansion and send the plan back to the Senate.

Meanwhile, Georgia lawmakers recently rejected a voucher plan.

More from The Education Report:

So, it’s encouraging to see Republicans in a Southeastern state say NO to vouchers. Which is what just happened in Georgia.

The legislature there just rejected a voucher expansion plan – with most Democrats and a handful of rural Republicans voting no.

Why would rural lawmakers oppose vouchers? Because local taxpayers don’t want to be stuck with the fiscal impact of supporting TWO school systems.

And that’s exactly what happens when public money supports private schools by way of vouchers – or even charter schools.

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