Tennesseeans Undergo Propaganda Barrage from Corporate Charter Industry
A Tennessee teacher, James Gifford, has an op-ed in The Tennesseean (May 25) entitled Closer look shows charter schools' 'success' is deceiving. It did not take long for the KIPP PR machine to swing into action, with its own piece today by KIPP Nashville’s CEO, Randy Dowell.
While Dowell certainly did not mean to do so, his piece today proves Gifford’s point exactly. A few quotes from Dowell will show his deception writ large:
. . . Mr. Gifford asserts that some charter schools nationwide “do not even enroll many of the neediest students.” This is simply untrue for charter schools in Tennessee, all of which serve the neediest students.
Like the rest of the schools in the national network of KIPP schools, KIPP Nashville is an open-enrollment, public charter school explicitly designed to serve the need