Author Archives: Andy Spears

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TN Attorney General Backs Christian Charter Schools

Sam Stockard over at Tennessee Lookout takes a look at the crumbling wall of separation between church and state as it relates to education in Tennessee:

The latest disassembly involves an opinion by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti saying the state’s prohibition on religious-based charter schools “likely” violates the free exercise of religion in the First Amendment.

Skrmetti wrote the opinion at the request of Republican state Rep. Michelle Carringer of Knoxville who has a bill relating to charter schools. Carringer said Thursday she requested the opinion for “legal clarity” on the relationship between the Constitution and Tennessee charter laws but has no plans to bring legislation related to it.

The opinion is of interest as a Christian charter operator in Knox County is suing for the right to operate an explicitly Christian “public” charter school using state and local funds.

Onward, Christian Charters
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Florida School Choice Scheme Riddled with Problems

Taking 450,000 Kids Out of TN Public Schools

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Knox County Sends a Message

The Knox County School Board is asking the General Assembly to reject legislation that would require schools to check for immigration documentation before allowing a student to attend.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel reports:

The Knox County school board will ask Tennessee legislators to stop a bill that could block public education for undocumented immigrants.

The legislature in 2026 could once again take up a bill designed to challenge established rules allowing those without legal status to have the same education access as those who were born here. Board members used their annual legislative priorities list to say they want to educate all students regardless of their immigration status.

The board voted 6-3 to include the priority with two Republicans joining the Democratic minority Dec. 4. Members Betsy Henderson, Lauren Morgan and Steve Triplett voted against it.

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Dismantling the Department of Education

A Nightmare Scenario

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That’s a Big Loss

Florida’s Department of Education is unable to track as many as 30,000 students at any given time due to the “Wild West” nature of the state’s multiple “school choice” schemes:

Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Crestview, said that at any given moment the state does not know where 30,000 students are in terms of school categories — traditional public or voucher-supported private or home schools — together worth $270 million in education support.

Sometimes, the students are “double-dipping” – enrolled in a private school where voucher dollars have been sent, but actually attending a local public school – the cost, then, is borne exclusively by the local school district.

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Lee Sued Over Private School Coupon Scheme

Plotting the End of Public Schools

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Knox County Immigration Vote

Should schools act as immigration enforcement agents?

The Knox County School Board will soon take a vote on whether or not to actively oppose state legislation on the issue.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel has more:

Knox County school board members will decide Dec. 4 whether to support a Tennessee bill requiring schools to verify students’ immigration status before allowing them into the classroom.

The General Assembly could take up a bill in 2026 designed specifically to challenge a 1982 Supreme Court decision that guarantees access to public schools for all children regardless of their immigration status. Two school board members – Katherine Bike and Anne Templeton – are urging their colleagues to tell lawmakers the Knox County school board opposes the bill.

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Schools of Despair Haunt Florida Education Landscape

A Plan to End Public Education in Tennessee

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Onward, Christian Charters

A Christian charter school operator in Knox County is suing because it wants public money to operate a clearly religious “public” school.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel has more:

A new Christian nonprofit attempting to operate a charter school in Knoxville has sued the Knox County Board of Education, asserting the board discriminated against the nonprofit because state and local policies won’t allow “unapologetically Christian” schools to apply.

I suspect that since state dollars flow to explicitly religious private schools by way of vouchers, there’s really little difference when the state and/or a local school board sends funds to an explicitly religious charter school.

Wilberforce Academy is hardly the first openly religious school to offer the pretense of being a fully “public” charter school.

Hillsdale is in on the game, too:

Charter schools affiliated with Christian Nationalist outfit Hillsdale College made multiple charter school applications in an attempt to access millions in taxpayer cash:

Five proposed charter schools affiliated with controversial Michigan-based Hillsdale College would drain more than $17 million from Tennessee suburban and rural public schools during their first year of operation and roughly $35 million per year at maximum enrollment, according to a new fiscal analysis by Public School Partners (PSP) and Charter Fiscal Impact.

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How Florida Lost Track of 30,000 Students

Tennessee Faces School Voucher Lawsuit

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$1.6 Billion in Repairs

That’s what’s needed in Memphis-Shelby County Schools, according to a story from Chalkbeat:

MSCS leaders are expected to present initial plans on Dec. 16 for what could be a decade-long process of school closures and renovations. This comes after an independent study found this spring that Memphis schools need over $1.6 billion in maintenance repairs over the next 10 years.

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Schools of Despair in Florida

Moving Half of TN Students to Private Schools

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A Note on Test Scores

A Nashville education blogger ponders the deeper meaning of all the horn-tooting over “Reward Schools.”

A comparison of this year’s list with previous years shows designations change constantly—Reward one year, not-Reward the next. The only thing consistent is that Priority Schools almost never escape the list.

Many have been on it for a decade or more.
They serve low-income, multi-cultural, multilingual communities.
We know—have known—that external factors shape internal results.

Yet we cling to these lists like they’re diagnostic tools rather than PR instruments.

TCAP, Poverty, and Investment in Schools

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The Florida School Voucher Swamp

Of Vouchers and School Closures

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On Acting and School Administration

Nashville education blogger TC Weber talks about what passes for leadership in school system central offices:

Most district administrators began their journey as classroom teachers. They know kids. They know learning. They know what works and what absolutely does not. Deep down—buried under layers of jargon, compliance documents, and motivational posters—they recognize the absurdity of much of what they’re pushing.

Nobody who has spent more than 10 minutes with actual children believes that forcing every kid to be on the same page at the same time in the same way is a kid-centered practice. It’s not even an adult-centered practice. It’s a bureaucrat-centered practice.

No one with chalk dust buried in their bloodstream believes loading down a teacher with mandates, trainings, videos, forms, surveys, dashboards, rubrics, walk-throughs, and “fidelity checks” is a recipe for success. It’s a recipe for burnout, and we’ve watched that soufflé collapse again and again.

Go ahead, read it all>

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Tennessee Parents Sue Over Private School Coupon Scheme

Killing Public Schools in Tennessee

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Less Well Rounded

TN’s State Board of Education is suggesting reducing the foreign language requirement for high school graduation from 2 credits to 1.

The Nashville Banner reports:

Several months earlier, Board Chair Robert Eby had requested a review of the world language graduation requirement. Tennessee public school students are currently required to take two credits of the same world language as part of the 22 minimum credits needed to graduate. Eby has suggested rolling back that requirement, in order to offer students more flexibility to take elective courses. 

Eby’s intention to revise graduation requirements has instilled fear and anxiety among some teachers and students across the state who have mobilized over the past several months — hoping to persuade the board that world language courses are not dispensable, but rather a crucial piece of a well-rounded education. 

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An Extreme Agenda for Schools

Defending Public Schools: A Winning Campaign Strategy

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How Big Will TN’s Voucher Program Get in 2026?

Tennessee’s private school coupon scheme already has 20,000 takers. It will grow to 25,000 in 2026-27 unless the legislature intervenes to expand the program further.

And, that’s just what Gov. Bill Lee and House Speaker Cameron Sexton plan to do – with some suggesting a doubling of the program to 40,000 students next year.

Chalkbeat reports:

A mechanism in the state law will allow lawmakers to easily expand the program for 5,000 new students since the state received more than 40,000 applications, well above the expansion threshold set by state law. But Gov. Bill Lee and other Republican lawmakers say they want to expand the program even further.

But it’s unlikely the number of new seats will be decided on by the time applications close on Jan. 30, just days into the 2026 legislative session.

At least one issue advocacy group is calling for the state to rapidly expand the voucher program and other school privatization efforts – calling for 200,000 students to be using vouchers by 2031.

Gov. Bill Lee promoting school privatization

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