Hillsdale's Charter Quest Continues

Charter network back in line, looking for handouts from local taxpayers

Photo by Isabella Fischer on Unsplash

A charter network affiliated with the Christian nationalist extremists at Hillsdale College has resubmitted applications to open schools in Maury and Madison counties. This after both districts turned them down earlier this year.

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 Mayor of Columbia, Maury County’s largest city and county seat, is already speaking out against the charter proposal.

The quest for Hillsdale to open a number (up to 50) of charter schools in the state began with Gov. Bill Lee’s 2022 State of the State Address.

Since then, Hillsdale has been pushing aggressively to secure local property tax dollars to support its agenda.

Specifically, Hillsdale charters would set local school districts up for a funding disaster:

Hillsdale's $35 Million Money Grab

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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Trying to Fill Teacher Vacancies: An Annual Story

And here we go again as Nashville’s NewsChannel5 reports that MNPS has hundreds of open positions just a few weeks before school starts:

District officials said there are currently 900 job openings throughout the district, and that includes around 400 teaching jobs. The biggest needs are in Exceptional Education, English Learners (EL), Math and Science.

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The ASD Unravels

I’ve written a bit about the Achievement School District - Tennessee’s attempt at school turnaround that failed miserably.

Chalkbeat has the story of the latest fallout in Memphis from this failed experiment:

Several of Memphis’ lowest performing schools face an uncertain future — and possible closure — as their charter agreements with Tennessee’s turnaround district near expiration.

Five of them, including MLK College Prep High School, are seeking approval to return to Memphis-Shelby County Schools as charter schools after a decade in the state-run Achievement School District. But MSCS officials have recommended denying their charter applications, along with bids from four proposed new charter schools. 

If the MSCS board votes to accept the district’s recommendations and deny the charters when it meets Tuesday, it would leave some 2,000 students with high academic needs in limbo, unsure of where they’ll attend classes in the 2024-25 school year.