When School Choice Isn’t About Choice at All

The people pushing “school choice” actually want only one choice

The same people banning books from schools and seeking to ban Pride flags are the ones pushing “school choice.”

Thing is, they don’t want actual choices. They want all schools to conform to their narrow vision.

Peter Greene offers some insight:

This is not about choice. It’s about capturing the education system so that young humans can be taught the correct way to behave and think. It’s about trying to eradicate a way of thinking and being that folks on the right disapprove of. 

He adds:

And there’s an absolutely ridiculous piece of “scholarship” from the Heritage Foundation trying to discredit charter schools for being woker than public schools, because choice is supposed to provide a variety of educational viewpoints, except not Those Viewpoints.

When someone like Ron DeSantis or Ryan Walters tells you that he favors school choice and he also favors making illegal all references to certain “divisive topics” and gender stuff, he is telling you that all his talk about school choice is bullshit. 

See also: Tennessee’s Gov. Bill Lee:

Lee made clear his preference for Christian Nationalism as the driving force for education “reform” in Tennessee in his 2022 State of the State Address.

Since then, he’s tried to force Hillsdale College-affiliated charter schools on Tennessee communities – and thanks to his hand-picked Charter School Commission, he’s succeeded in some cases.

The challenge here is not just the transfer of public money to private school operators. It’s also the use of public money for one very specific worldview – to the exclusion of all others.

Lee and his Christian Nationalist allies – some of whom have called for violent revolution in order to impose their vision on public schools – have decided they know best.

As Greene puts it:

This is not fond hopes for the day when dozens of different sorts of schools bloom and everyone can pick the one that best suits them. 

MORE Education News

School Vouchers Threaten to Bust Budgets in Indiana

The Road to the White House and Free School Lunch

MORE Tennessee News

Taking on Corporate Grocery Price Gouging

Project 2025 Threatens Environment

Hillsdale’s Got Trouble in Ohio

A Hillsdale-affiliated charter school caught just making stuff up

Cincinnati Classical Academy, a charter school affiliated with Hillsdale College, has some problems.

CCA “borrowed” the demographics from Cincinnati Public Schools in weaving a tale of serving low-income and minority students. As a result of their promise to serve underserved students, the school was awarded nearly $2 million in federal education funding.

The reality is that the school is located in a Cincinnati suburb and essentially operates as a free, private, Christian school for predominantly middle- to high-income white students.

The school’s $2 million federal grant received as a result of the application is now under scrutiny:

The Network for Public Education sent a letter to U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona protesting the grant and asking that it be rescinded. It was signed by Phillis’s coalition, along with U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), five state legislators who represent the area, the Ohio PTA, both state teachers unions, the Cincinnati NAACP, and more than a dozen public education, civil rights, local teacher associations and advocacy groups.

Hillsdale, of course, is in partnership with American Classical Education, the charter operator opening two schools in Tennessee next year. ACE has plans to open as many as 50 charter schools in the state. If that number is reached, local taxpayers will be on the hook for charter school funding to the tune of $350 million.

Onward, Christian Charters!

Bill Lee’s privatization plot bears fruit

A Christian Nationalist charter school network with ties to extreme-right Hillsdale College will soon operate two schools in the state.

Gov. Bill Lee’s handpicked charter school commission reversed a decision by the Jackson-Madison school board and approved locating a Hillsdale charter in the district.

The Commission also rejected an appeal for a Hillsdale charter in Maury County, noting that the application just “wasn’t there yet.”

The Hillsdale charter in Jackson-Madison will be the second in the state after Rutherford County’s school board approved an application from the charter network earlier this year.

Lee outlined his plan to partner with Hillsdale for the development of up to 50 charter schools in the state back in his 2022 State of the State Address. In that address, Lee made clear his allegiance with the ideology of American Exceptionalism and his comfort with Christian Nationalism.

An analysis of the fiscal impact of charter schools found that the Hillsdale charters, as envisioned in their applications, would drain roughly $7 million from each district where they operate.

If Lee’s dream of 50 Hillsdale charters is realized, more than $300 million could be transferred from state and local taxpayers to the charter network.

Even before he was a candidate for Governor, Lee was an advocate for funneling tax dollars to private, religious schools.

Even though as early as 2016, Bill Lee was extolling the virtues of school voucher schemes and even though he’s a long-time supporter of Betsy DeVos’s pro-voucher Tennessee Federation for Children and even though he has appointed not one, but two voucher vultures to high level posts in his Administration, it is somehow treated as “news” that Bill Lee plans to move forward with a voucher scheme agenda in 2019.

How did we get here? In 2018 I wrote:

Bill Lee was on the right team and spoke the right, religiously-tinged words and so earned the support of people who will look at you with a straight face and say they love Tennessee public schools.

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

Twice Denied

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.

News on Madison from Nashville’s NewsChannel5:

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.

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

Hillsdale Keeps Coming Back

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.

Tennessee Lookout reports:

American Classical Education, a Hillsdale College-affiliated charter school network, resubmitted amended applications in two of four counties that denied it earlier this year. 

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

Columbia Mayor Takes on Hillsdale Charter School

Mayor of Maury County’s largest city questions need for Michigan-based charter school

Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder says Maury County does not need a charter school – and especially not one backed by Michigan-based Hillsdale College.

Molder notes:

American Classical Education, a charter operator affiliated with Michigan-based Hillsdale College, is proposing to create taxpayer-funded privately run charters in Middle and West Tennessee. They’ve cherry-picked the counties where they believe they have the easiest path for approval, and Maury County was a direct target. ACE’s preferred instructional approach: A national curriculum known as Core Knowledge, which shares “connective tissue” with Common Core, according to the conservative Fordham Institute think tank.

Our local school board wisely rejected ACE in April, despite significant lobbying, if not bullying by ACE representatives and partisan board members who seem to be more interested in scoring a business or political win than solving the many pressing issues we have facing our local school system, and public education as a whole. Public education is in a crisis in this state. And, it’s not because of the quality of our teachers, or the promise of our youth.

Hillsdale has been the subject of controversy since not long after Gov. Bill Lee announced plans to allow the private college to open 50 charter schools in the state – handing over access to millions in local tax dollars with little accountability.

More on Hillsdale

Hillsdale’s Quest for Tennessee Tax Dollars

A Violent Revolution to Overthrow Public Schools?

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

Hillsdale’s Common Core Connection

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.

CORE KNOWLEDGE, COMMON CORE ARE ‘INTERCONNECTED’

For more than a decade, Core Knowledge and Common Core have been synonymous. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation engineered the rapid creation of Common Core standards nationwide during the late-2000s. Alongside the Gates Foundation, Hirsch’s Core Knowledge Foundation unveiled plans in Education Week to link his curriculum to Common Core — and Hirsch personally endorsed the standards in a Washington Post op-ed entitled, “Common Core Standards could revolutionize reading instruction.”


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.”

By late 2014, Gresham responded to the political pressure by introducing legislation to repeal Common Core in Tennessee. Soon after, she switched positions, telling the Associated Press in early 2015 that she reconsidered and thought Common Core was the right approach. Then, she changed her mind again. Education Week chronicled Gresham’s back-and-forth policy shifts in an article with the headline: “Common Core Flip-Flop Times Two: One Tenn. Senator’s Changing Positions.”

Policymakers representing conservative suburbs in Middle Tennessee — where ACE is now seeking to open charter schools — blasted Common Core in public statements and legislation.


For example, then-State Representative Joe Carr, who now serves as Rutherford County mayor, issued a statement to Breitbart News saying that Common Core amounted to “centralized education.” Similarly, then-State Representative Sheila Butt, who now serves as Maury County mayor, penned an op-ed in the Columbia Daily Herald pledging to eliminate Common Core and in 2015 co-sponsored a bill to repeal the standards. (More recently, however, Butt reversed course with public statements voicing support for ACE’s Common Core-aligned “classical school curriculum.”)


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.

During the pandemic in 2021, Governor Bill Lee sought to close what he called a lingering “Common Core loophole” with legislation banning teachers from using educational resources “marketed or otherwise identified as Common Core textbooks or materials.” Lee even pushed to allow the state to withhold funds from school districts caught using Common Core materials. Upon signing the Common Core materials ban into law, Lee stated in a tweet: “I promised that we would root out Common Core in TN public schools, and we’ve made tackling this issue a key legislative initiative.”


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.

Again, contrary to Tennessee law, Common Core is front-and-center in the Core Knowledge Foundation’s marketing. According to the foundation’s website, free downloadable materials include teacher guides, activity books, and other resources “aligned to the Common Core State Standards.” For example, the foundation notes that Core Knowledge history objectives are “correlated with the Common Core English Language Arts standards.”

In a lengthy 2023 publication entitled “Core Knowledge Sequence: Content and Skill Guidelines for Grades K-8,” the foundation repeatedly notes that the Core Knowledge academic objectives “embed all of the skills and concepts within the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.”

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

An ATM for an Extreme Agenda

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

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.

calculator and pen on table
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

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

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.

crop man getting dollars from wallet
Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

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