Open Letter to the Tennessee State Board of Education Regarding MNPS Charter Company Appeals
Open Letter to the Tennessee State Board of Education Regarding MNPS Charter Company Appeals
On August 18, the Nashville Metro School Board voted to denynew charter applications from KIPP, Inc. and Rocketship, Inc. These companies are representative of the proliferating “No Excuses” charter chains that provide the kind of harsh, economically segregated, and paternalistic total compliance school experience that white philanthropists prefer for poor children of color.
I strongly urge the State Board of Education to sustain the majority vote by the MNPS school board and to uphold the right of elected and local education agencies to determine the direction of public schools for the tax-paying communities they serve.
When two of the Metro school board members voted against the “no excuses” charter expansion based on what theTennessean described as “perceived practices of the schools,” they were voting for children’s rights. I am talking about the basic right to have a voice in school and to have resources that other public school children take for granted, rather than being forced into all-day silence, single file marching, zero tolerance discipline catechisms, constant test prep, and the behavioral straightjackets that keep “no excuses” charter children locked down at school.
These school board members who oppose further charter expansion were voting for disadvantaged children to have a more integrated education with children of other racial and class backgrounds, rather than the kind of apartheid “no excuses” schooling that middle class parents would never, ever allow for their own children.
They were voting for the children of poor parents to have the opportunity to participate in their education, rather Schools Matter: Open Letter to the Tennessee State Board of Education Regarding MNPS Charter Company Appeals:
