School Board Member Lays Out Cost of Charter Expansion
Recently the school board of Metro Nashville rejected three new charter applications. Will Pinkston was one of those thoughtful and responsible school board members who voted with his constituents' interests in mind, rather than with the segregating ideologies of corporate education reform schoolers.
Here is Pinkston's recent op-ed in the Tennessean, which lays out his rationale for supporting public school children over corporate interests:
Recently, outgoing Mayor Karl Dean penned an op-ed in the Tennessean applauding the successes of a student and a charter school, KIPP Nashville.
I share his enthusiasm in congratulating the family and the school.
Now, let's discuss the 76,000 students and 5,500 teachers in Metro Nashville Public School Students (MNPS) who aren't in charter schools, but also deserve our support. MNPS is ranked 54th out of 67 urban school systems in America in per-pupil funding.
Due in part to inadequate state funding, we trail school systems in Atlanta, Charlotte and Louisville, among others.
Meanwhile, multiple studies — including an independent audit commissioned by the mayor and Metro Council — found that the unchecked proliferation of publicly funded, privately run charter schools is having a negative fiscal impact on existing schools at a time when the school system is turning around academically.
The MNPS charter pipeline — the number of charter seats not yet created but scheduled to come into existence under previously approved applications — now stands at 8,157 seats. That doesn't include the 8,112 seats that already exist in Nashville's 27 charter schools.
Put differently: The city's charter sector will double over the next few years, even if the Nashville School Board takes no further action.
And as state and local funding is redirected from MNPS to charters, our under-resourced existing schools will be Schools Matter: School Board Member Lays Out Cost of Charter Expansion:
