NASHVILLE---Did public sound and fury give pause to the Republicans' bill to knock Davidson and Shelby Counties out of the way in deciding which charter schools would be allowed to set up here?
House Bill 702 was put off today in the Education Committee's weekly meeting with Committee Chairman Harry Brooks saying there was not enough time to get into the subject and that it would be deferred until later. The meeting room audience was dominated by opponents of the bill.
On behalf of a parents group, Standing Together 4 Strong Community Schools, parents Anne-Marie Farmer and Chelle Baldwin made statements to the committee. The group had rallied support from the community, had put up an informational web site, created a Facebook page and had gotten others to contact members of the education committee.
The bill also had been ardently opposed by Metro Nashville city council members and Democratic legislators from Nashville. Nashville Mayor Karl Dean surprisingly supported the state charter authorizer plan over local decision-making by the Metro Nashville school board.
Afterward, bill sponsor Rep. Mark White (R--Germantown) told reporters that he would reconsider changing the bill to apply to all Tennessee counties, rather than singling out Davidson and Shelby Counties.
The bill originated with House Speaker Beth Harwell, and the intent of the bill was viewed as revenge for Metro Nashville's school board rejecting a charter school application from Arizona-based Great Hearts Academy last year. Great Hearts appealed to the state, which then overrode the Nashville board's decision and demanded that the school board welcome Great Hearts. The Nashville board refused, and in retaliation, the state withheld $3.4 million in state funds due to the Metro Nashville school system.
Although under present law charter schools apply through the local county school boards, there is a process to appeal to the state if a charter's application is denied. Bill 702 would have given charter schools an option to apply directly to the state and thus jump over local input and decision-making, but only in Davidson and Shelby Counties, the state's two largest. The bill allowed for no appeal, making the state's decision singular and final.
"You have said this bill removes politics from the process, but actually it removes democracy from the process," Farmer told the committee. "This puts decision-making in the hands of a board of people who do not live here or pay taxes here, and they will not be affected by their decisions.
"This cuts the public out of the process," Farmer said. "I do not believe that once this door is open it will stop; this will come to affect all counties."
Referring to the Great Hearts decision, Baldwin noted to the committee that "Great Hearts does not serve those at the bottom of the achievement gap....by all measures, the Metro school board is doing everything right." The Metro board had said Great Hearts wanted to locate in an area where the existing public schools were performing well, and the board noted that Great Hearts did not have a plan for diversity of students.
"Rep. White said this is about competition. Rep. Glen Casada says we will experiment on Davidson and Shelby Counties," Baldwin said.
"This is not corporate America," she said. "You cannot treat them like a business. These children are our future. The school board members are doing their job very well. Let them continue."
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