When the Circus Comes to Town
Hillsdale College brings their Christian Nationalist clown show to Tennessee
What happens when a private, Christian college from Michigan wants to get its hands on Tennessee tax dollars by way of operating charter schools?
In the case of Hillsdale College, it means an unrelenting push for potentially hundreds of millions of public dollars to operate a network of schools dedicated to a vision of history that simply fails to align with the facts.
While local school boards in Madison, Montgomery, and Rutherford Counties soundly rejected Hillsdale’s push for charter schools in their communities, the college isn’t stopping.
Now, they are appealing to Gov. Bill Lee’s state charter commission - an unelected board 100% appointed by Lee and accountable only to Lee.
Since the local school boards rejected the charter applications, the state charter commission is now conducting hearings in each community before ultimately making a decision on whether the schools can open.
Here’s a bit more about how that went down in Rutherford County.
And here’s how the Rutherford County School Board responded to Hillsdale’s application:
Today, Hillsdale and Lee’s charter commission are conducting their circus in Clarksville. While the pro-privatization forces managed to once again rig the agenda - lining up speakers to support Hillsdale’s attempted heist of public funds - some Clarksville residents simply weren’t having it.
The broader question?
Why?
The answer is simple: Hillsdale wants cash.
If the state charter commission grants these three charters and they open as planned, each school will receive nearly $2.5 million (or more, depending on funding formula weights) in 2023-24.
In his State of the State in January, Lee said he wanted to open as many as 50 Hillsdale charters in the state. If each of those schools ONLY operated at the level of 325 students, that’d amount to $125 million.
But Hillsdale’s vision is much grander than that. American Classical Academy plans to build in each location into a K-12 school. That’s between $9 million and $10 million PER school.
If Hillsdale can successfully open a network of 50 charters in the state, the tiny Christian college could bring in $450 million in Tennessee tax dollars each year.
That’s public money for a decidedly right-wing, extreme, Christian nationalist agenda.
The net result will also mean taking public funds from the local public schools - leaving local budgets with huge gaps. Will that mean hiring less teachers or cutting programs or will it mean shifting funds from infrastructure to schools to fill the gap? It could also mean raising local property taxes - so, yes, local taxes could go up significantly to fund a project that the local elected officials have rejected.
Bill Lee’s unelected state board could authorize a project that means less funds for public schools and higher taxes.
Do Tennesseans want to pay higher property taxes to enrich the leaders of Hillsdale College in Michigan?
MORE EDUCATION NEWS
Tennessee Pastors Call for Rejection of Hillsdale Charters
I'm a public school teacher. What less funding means is fewer teachers. Fewer teachers equals bigger, crowded classrooms. It means kids sitting in the gym bleachers instead of being in class, because they don't have a teacher. It means classes that are baby-sat, not taught, by subs. What less funding means is that states hire less and less qualified people to teach. In Indiana and Florida, teachers don't even have to have a college degree. Lee does not support public education. He supports folks who want to make money off of our tax dollars.