Tag: charter schools

Crom Carmichael: If You Are a Black or Hispanic Person That Cares About Children’s Education Then Donald Trump is the Clear Choice for President

Julie Carr

Live from Music Row Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. –  host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio.

During the second hour, Carmichael weighed in on Joe Biden’s recent advocacy for teachers and not students in his endorsement of the National Education Association (NEA) during a virtual assembly last Friday. He stated that Donald Trump is the clear choice for Blacks, Hispanics, and other people of color that care about their children’s education.

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Bernie Sanders to be the First 2020 Candidate to Call for Ban on Charter Schools

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by Neetu Chandak   Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is set to call for a ban on for-profit charter schools Saturday, which will make him the first 2020 presidential candidate to suggest such a policy. Sanders is slated to argue in an education policy speech in South Carolina Saturday that the increase in charter schools has taken money away from public schools and has disadvantaged the black community. “Charter schools are led by unaccountable, private bodies, and their growth has drained funding from the public school system,” Sanders tweeted Friday. “When we are in the White House we will ban for-profit charter schools.” Charter schools are led by unaccountable, private bodies, and their growth has drained funding from the public school system. When we are in the White House we will ban for-profit charter schools. https://t.co/LGY3ZaWiVm — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 17, 2019 Sanders’s charter school solutions include requiring charters to comply with the same oversight regulations for public schools, supporting unionization for charter school teachers and placing caps on CEO salaries, CNN reported. “As president I will stand with groups like the @NAACP and put a moratorium on federal funding of new charter schools until rules are in…

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Ohio Bill Would End ‘Right of First Refusal’ for Schools of Choice

Maggie Leigh Thurber

  For nearly eight years, charter and community schools in Ohio have had an advantage: first dibs on any public school property that was for sale. It’s a process called a right of first refusal. House Bill 43 will eliminate that advantage. Right now, if a school district wants to sell or lease unused real property, like a school building that hasn’t been used in at least two years, it has to first offer that property to schools of choice in the district. Community or charter schools, STEM schools, and college preparatory boarding schools are schools of choice in Ohio. The school district is required to let all the schools know that the property is available and then give them 60 days to respond. If no school of choice is interested, the district can sell the property at a public auction and anyone can bid on it. The law was created in 2011 in order to give educational entities first priority in the sale of educational buildings, something public school districts had been reluctant to do. But even with the law, schools of choice encountered problems. In a 2016 study of Ohio’s top-performing charter schools, “about half (49 percent) report that local…

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Speaker Glen Casada Helps Get Governor’s Charter School Commission Initiative Out of House Committee

Laura Baigert

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – While the Education Committees of both the House and Senate heard Governor Lee’s bill on a new charter school commission initiative on the same day just hours apart, the process and outcomes were very different between the two bodies. In the House, in front of a standing room only House Hearing Room I the Education Committee had discussion on HB 0940 carried by Education Committee Chairman Mark White (R-Memphis), for a total of about one and three-quarter hours. With White being the House Education Committee Chair and carrying the bill, he turned the gavel over to freshman legislator and Education Committee Vice-Chair Kirk Haston (R-Lobelville) to run that part of the meeting. White started the process by introducing amendment 6140 which rewrites the bill presented to the subcommittee last week. The rewrite was an outcome of the administration listening to the concerns of the subcommittee, as reported by The Tennessee Star, and subsequently making major changes to the bill in response. Going on with the explanation, White said the 2002 Charter School Act accepted charter schools and in 2011 the cap on the number of charter schools was removed. White then reviewed the current flow chart of…

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Civics and School Choice Elements of Governor Bill Lee’s Education Agenda Make Their Way Through the State House

Laura Baigert

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Elements of Governor Bill Lee’s focus on education, which he talked about on the campaign trail, his inaugural address and more recently in his first state of the state address, including an emphasis on parents having more school choice as well as civics education and “unapologetic American exceptionalism,” are making their way through the State House committee process. “Administration bills,” as they are called, are those that are initiated by the Executive Branch of the state government. That could be the Governor as the chief executive, or any of the numerous state departments within the executive branch. It is one role of the Majority Leader of each legislative body to be the primary sponsor of an administration bill, which would be Senator Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) and Representative William Lamberth (R-Cottontown) in the Senate and House, respectively. As House Majority Leader Lamberth explains it, the bills are most often “carried” by another member in the House, although, in his role, he would ensure that the administrative process is properly executed. Generally, the first co-prime sponsor of a bill in the House would be the Assistant Majority Leader, in this case, Representative Ron Gant (R-Rossville). In the case of…

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Report: North Carolina Charter Schools Outperform Traditional Counterparts

A.P. Dillon

A recent report given to state lawmakers shows that overall North Carolina charter schools are outperforming their traditional counterparts. The report also shows that North Carolina charters are in high demand and are also attracting more economically disadvantaged and minority students. Except for high school math, subgroups in charter schools performed better than non-charters in English/LA, Elementary and Middle Math, and Science,” Rhonda Dillingham, Executive Director of the NC Association for Public Charter Schools told Battleground State News. When North Carolina opened the legislative door to public charter schools back in the late 1990s, there were just a little over 4,000 students enrolled in charter schools. In 2012, there were just over 45,200 students in 100 charter schools across the state. Five years later, there were roughly 168 charter schools serving around 91,800 students. Now, North Carolina currently has 184 charters operating in the state which enroll more than 109,000 students or 7.3 percent of state’s total average daily membership. And the demand for charter schools is high. There are roughly 55,000 students on charter school waiting lists according to a presentation given to the State Board of Education by David Machado, Director of the Office of Charter Schools. Thirty-five…

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North Carolina Wins 5-Year $26.6 Million Federal Charter School Expansion Grant

A.P. Dillon

North Carolina is one of eight states to have won a 5-year federal charter school opportunities expansion grant worth $26.6 million. The other states receiving the grants are Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Michigan, and New York. The Expanding Opportunities through Quality Charter School Program seeks to expand educational opportunities and support for traditionally underserved students who are economically disadvantaged, homeless, students with disabilities, unaccompanied youths, and non-native English speakers. “I am excited that North Carolina was awarded this highly competitive grant from the Department of Education,” said Dave Machado, director of the Office of Charter Schools at the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. “This grant will help us promote high-quality schools and open more schools in the underserved rural areas of North Carolina.” “The CSP grant represents an important step forward for the charter school sector in North Carolina,” said Alex Quigley, chairman of the Charter Schools Advisory Board. “This investment will help drive innovation in the important work of ensuring all students in this state have the opportunity to choose an excellent education.” According to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, the grant funds will be used to: Increase the number of educationally disadvantaged students attending high-quality…

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Minnesota Receives ‘C’ Grade From Center for Education Reform, Cautions Against Walz’s ‘Authoritarian’ Approach

Anthony Gockowski
students in class

Minnesota received an overall C grade in parent empowerment on the Center for Education Reform’s annual Parent Power Index, which factors school choice, charter schools, personalized learning, teacher quality, and transparency into its grading system. With two school-choice programs, Minnesota received an F grading in the area of school choice, but still managed to score above the national average. Only one state, Florida, received an A for its school choice programs. Minnesota currently offers a K-12 Education Credit, which is an individual tax credit program that “offers families refundable tax credits for non-tuition educational expenses like tutoring, educational after-school programs and books.” The state also offers an Education Deduction program that allows “parents to deduct educational expenses, including tuition, tutoring, books, and more.” Overall, Minnesota ranked fourth on the Parent Power Index, which states that “only a lack of private school choice prevents this star from rising as high as it could.” “Like its North Star name suggests, Minnesota is truly a stellar state for education innovation. It was the first state to pass a charter school law, and it is now at the forefront of digital and personalized learning. Minnesota also offers many choices for high school students to…

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Ohio School Voucher Program Doubles as More Public Schools Fail to Make The Grade

Andrew Shirley

After a staggering number of Ohio public schools failed to make the grade, the state’s voucher and charter school system is poised for tremendous expansion. In Ohio, if the public school test scores of a student’s home district fall below a certain level, calculated by the Ohio Department of Education, a number of the students are automatically granted vouchers to attend private school and charter schools are permitted to establish themselves. This is intended to both give children from every country access to quality schools and alleviate the student burden on the lagging school.  The public schools performed so poorly that charter schools will have 600 times more areas to expand into, and student access to vouchers will more than double. Teacher unions and many in the progressive activist community have aggressively opposed both school voucher programs and charter schools. They argue that these programs siphon off funding from the already financially strained school system. In addition, a number of private schools in Ohio were founded as religious institutions. While none can legally force children to engage in religious activity against their will, progressives maintain that as they are still religiously-oriented, it is a violation of the ‘separation church and state.’ Ironically, it was an…

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Tennessee Celebrates School Choice With Events

Jason M. Reynolds

School choice is at the heart of a nationwide event taking place Jan. 21-27. Held every January, National School Choice Week (NSCW) brings the idea of education options to the forefront. Schools, homeschool groups and other organizations plan tens of thousands of events during the annual event, according to the movement’s website. Plans include rallies, receptions, coffeehouse meet-ups, festivals, school fairs, and other activities. Tennesseans have planned 640 events around the state that week, the group said in a press release. Gov. Bill Haslam proclaimed Jan. 21-27 as Tennessee School Choice Week, while Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke proclaimed the same on behalf of his city. Andrew Campanella, president of NSCW, said, “Parents in Chattanooga, like parents everywhere, simply want the best for their kids. We’re grateful to Mayor Berke for issuing this proclamation, raising parents’ awareness of the educational options available for their children. Every kid is unique, and parents know their kids better than anyone else. We hope to empower parents in Chattanooga and across the country to find the school or educational option that they know is best for their own kids.” NSCW recognizes all K-12 options, including traditional public schools, public charter schools, public magnet schools, private…

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Movie Critical of Charter Schools and Vouchers Shown at Nashville Film Festival

Wendy Wilson

  A documentary taking a critical look at charter schools and vouchers was shown Tuesday evening at the Nashville Film Festival. “Backpack Full of Cash” was filmed partly in Nashville and features Metro Nashville school board member Amy Frogge, who attended Tuesday’s screening at the Regal Hollywood 27 at 100 Oaks. Both charter schools and vouchers were referred to in the movie as efforts toward privatization. Charter schools are publicly funded but privately run. Vouchers, sometimes called scholarships, allow students to attend private schools with public money. The title of the documentary refers to a metaphor used by a privatization proponent in the movie to illustrate how an allotted amount of taxpayer money follows each student to the school of their choice. Nashville has a number of charter schools and a voucher bill is currently moving through the state legislature. It will be heard Wednesday morning by the House Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee. The issue of privatization has ignited powerful and emotional reactions but ones that don’t fall along traditional ideological lines, proving the adage that politics makes strange bedfellows. Some conservatives are strong proponents of privatization, but so are Bill and Melinda Gates, also known for supporting progressive causes. The…

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