Schools Matter: Nashville's Mayor Dean Commits Almost 10% of 4-Year School Improvement Budget to One KIPP

Schools Matter: Nashville's Mayor Dean Commits Almost 10% of 4-Year School Improvement Budget to One KIPP:

Nashville's Mayor Dean Commits Almost 10% of 4-Year School Improvement Budget to One KIPP

by Jim Horn

In Nashville, as in many metropolitan areas, capital improvement funds are short and the need is large.  Nashville Metro has identified needed school improvements that amount to $185 million. Mayor Dean has committed $16 million, or almost 10 percent of Nashville Metro’s 4-year school capital improvement budget, for a new segregated KIPP, Inc. corporate charter school, even as the Fisher, Gates, Broad, and Walton Foundations, along with other wealthy patrons, pour in hundreds of millions of dollars into this charter chain that has just over a hundred schools nationwide.  


Meanwhile, Nashville's public school teachers that serve the poor use garbage cans to collect water from leaky roofs and do their best in overcrowded and damaged classrooms.  At Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet, a high-performing