From the

Nashville Scene

:

The Metro school board reversed course and voted 5-3 to approve the application of STRIVE Collegiate Academy, a proposed charter middle school in the McGavock cluster on the east side of Nashville, during a contentious special meeting on Thursday.

And this:

The main question centered around a resolution passed in November, where the board almost unanimously directed MNPS and charter operators to focus efforts into the high-growth Overton and Glencliff clusters of schools, many of which will have capacities exceeding 120 percent by 2017. Would the board adhere to its own stated policy, or approve a charter school that applied in defiance of them?

Jesse Register, the Director of Schools, recommended that the BOE ignore the policy and vote to approve the charter.

Register, who took a beating, responded to barbs leveled at him.

"I don't agree with some of the criticism I received," he said, noting that his final recommendation was for the board to ignore their policy and vote yes. "I think the charter school can add value. There are children that will benefit from that service. I prefer that the charters be approved locally."

This is fascinating, as it reveals the two-pronged approach of the charterizers:

1. Target ‘low-performing public schools’

2. Recruit members of the African-American community to lead ‘charterization’ efforts.

LaKendra Butler, a 31-year-old former teacher from Dallas and Atlanta schools, is one of eight educators who formally submitted applications before the Tuesday deadline for new charters seeking entry in 2015. For months, she's planned a middle school, STRIVE Collegiate Academy, for the Donelson-Hermitage neighborhood that would serve students in the McGavock High School cluster.

In November, though, the school board approved a resolution that outlined two types of charters it would consider: those that seek to take over chronically low-performing public schools and those proposing elementary schools in South Nashville to ease overcrowding there.

2. Recruit members of the African-American community to lead ‘charterization’ efforts.

It increases their stakeholders, in light of the fact that it a lot of commonsense conservatives haven't bought in to the whole gimmick.

Plus, it makes the elite feel like they are doing something for the disadvantaged.

A sham.

The other sham is the appeals process. If the TN DOE was an "impartial jury" so to speak, that would be different. However, it is crystal clear that they have been poisoned by the big money connections to public school privatization efforts. I expect them to approve any charter that makes it that far. Kudos to the Metro BOE for holding off this long. Ours just rolled over and let the bully (Kevin Huffman) gets his way. Of course the state made it so that the local systems would have more control if they just went ahead and approved charter schools. Otherwise there would be no incentive to have them over using those funds to better existing schools. Charter schools rarely offer any magic other than lower class size, more arts, and stronger discipline. All things public school teachers have requested and been denied for years.

There IS a way to have better discipline in public schools that would not turn them into souless buildings. You would need two things. Better support from administrators in dealing with disruptive situations and the time for teachers to teach social skills, empathy and resposibility. Time which is currently non-existent in the "race to the test" culture. When kindergartners don't learn how to help others,wait their turn and cooperate,those gaps don't just magically disappear. We HAVE to realize that the mission of public schools cannot be just to create skilled employees, but to create good,thoughtful citizens as well.

Create a doxa in which for-profit ideology is infused into political, social, and cultural institutions. Operate a for-profit, ever increasingly consolidated journalism system in which advertising revenue is critical and labor costs must be cut, remove labor beats. Say "free market". Exacerbate the fiscal crisis of the state by fomenting psychopathic ideological hatred of taxes and the common good. Use fiscal crisis to increase class size. Force standardized tests from private firms that show those schools are failures. De-fund public schools. Blame teacher unions for low test scores and underperforming public schools. Weaken teachers unions destroying their collective bargaining along with public sector unions, together the largest remaining in the United States. Promote and create adverse, disempowering working conditions which lead to highly "flexible" labor markets in various sectors like education. Promote and fund think tanks that "promote freedom" such as nonunion, profit-oriented charter schools/vouchers and other policies and legislation as solutions. Say best practice. Globalize for-profit education networks outside of states. Take advantage of new market tax credits to build for-profit schools, maximize profits and shelter taxes. Don't mention, downplay connections between SES and educational attainment, say nothing of structural racism and poverty, revisit and attempt to normalize poverty as good. Schools to prison pipeline. Use profits to funnel back into politicians where political spending is a free speech right alongside corporate personhood.

(link...)

What made white businessmen from Dallas' segregated northern enclaves, who typically donate to their children's private academies, start caring about the plight of a low-income district?

In other news on the private school/public funding front - Arizona companies are able to take direct tax credits for any money they contribute to education savings accounts that can be used for private schools. Look up Lexie's law.

Looks like a back door way to siphon off tax dollars for private schools.