This fall, Chattanooga Christian School and Olivet Baptist are scheduled to launch a new private school that will cater to students in kindergarten through the fifth grades, according to The Chattanooga Times Free Press.
According to the paper, officials will call it the King School, and they will have it on church grounds, the paper said.
This, the paper said, is “a new education option for students in the city’s worst-performing schools.”
“The venture, leaders say, is meant to provide more quality education options to students for whom a private school education is unattainable and to increase educational equity in Chattanooga,” according to The Times Free Press.
Chad Dirkse, president of Chattanooga Christian School, told the paper that “families desire educational equity and that the more options they have, the better off they are.”
The school’s tuition is $6,500 per year and is designed so low-income families may more easily access the school, according to The Times Free Press.
The school will start year one with two classes of 12 students each, for kindergarten and another for the first-grade, the paper said.
The school plans “small class sizes, low student-to-faculty ratios, engaging curriculum and extracurricular opportunities,” according to The Chattanooga Times Free Press.
The paper went on to say that Republican Gov. Bill Lee has said he supports school vouchers that could allow parents to pay for private school.
State Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, the paper said, has a school voucher bill in the legislature that is to help students attend a private school of their choosing.
The Tennessee Star, however, was unable to find such a bill on the Tennessee General Assembly’s website. Representatives from Gardenhire’s office said Monday and Tuesday that they knew of no such bill, as reported in The Times Free Press.
Dirkse told the paper that they have a responsibility “to ensure every child receives a high-quality education.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Chattanooga Christian School” by Chattanooga Christian School.
We need a voucher system to transfer more of the education burden off of the county and city schools systems that are rushing to build schools to meet the growth demands. There is no good reason why the private sector cannot do a more efficient way of educating our kids. I once had a 20 minute conversation with a public school teacher about the private vs public education provide to children. Every reason she had for a public schools education had to do with benefits to the teacher. Every point I wanted to discuss focused on the benefits of a private education for the student. Who is more important?