Schools Matter: Nashville Charters' Mind-Boggling Appeal for Expansion

Schools Matter: Nashville Charters' Mind-Boggling Appeal for Expansion:

Nashville Charters' Mind-Boggling Appeal for Expansion

In August the Nashville Metro School Board voted down further "no excuses" charter expansion.

School board members based their votes on 1) the dehumanizing and brutal regimen of the total compliance charters that is ostensibly aimed to improve student "character," 2) the siphoning of money by charters that will not be available to fund instructional programs and facility improvements for children in existing public schools, and 3) the fact that Nashville Metro does not have a plan that analyzes the need for charters or the long-term repercussions of sending hundreds of millions of school funds each year to corporate reform school operators.

Even without further expansion, this year, alone, Nashville Metro will spend $78 million on charter schools, even though thewait lists of parents trying to get their children into public schools are much longer than the wait lists for the charters like KIPP that are appealing the school board's decision to halt expansion. (Only one of KIPP's four Nashville schools even has a wait list).

At the appeals hearing with the State Board of Education two days ago, KIPP's lawyer, Drew Goddard, used his best pretzel logic to argue for KIPP expansion.  According to Goddard, KIPP expansion could actually save Metro money by drawing off students Schools Matter: Nashville Charters' Mind-Boggling Appeal for Expansion: