Families File Notices Declaring Desire For Classical Charter Schools To Be Opened In Tennessee

Image Credit: American Classical Education

The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –

Following an onslaught of inaccurate mainstream media reporting and left-leaning politically-motivated pushback that stymied American Classical Education’s (ACE) attempts to provide more school choice for Tennessee’s children, parents have filed notices that they want five ACE schools to be opened in Tennessee.

ACE originally planned to open three classical education charter schools in Madison, Montgomery and Rutherford counties but was lumped in with Hillsdale College following a hidden camera video that was leaked in which Hillsdale College president Larry Arnn called into question the way public school teachers are trained in universities and criticizing the educational bureaucracies that claim expertise but tend to produce teachers without crucial subject knowledge and questioned the value of education degrees.

The liberal media cherry-picked Arnn’s comments out of context, soliciting outrage from many teachers in Tennessee and subsequent pandering rhetoric by some of Tennessee’s elected officials.

The widespread mainstream media coverage of Arnn’s comments was used as an excuse for the liberal-dominated school boards of Madison, Montgomery and Rutherford counties to reject the charter school applications of ACE, which uses curricula designed by Hillsdale College.

ACE appealed the school board’s decisions in all three counties to Tennessee’s nine-member Public Charter School Commission, which has the power to overturn the decision of the school boards.

However, on September 29th, Former Tennessee State Senator and current ACE board member Dolores Gresham, issued a letter withdrawing their applications stating in part that they had “limited time to resolve the concerns raised by the commission staff and our concerns that the meeting structure and timing on Oct. 5 will not allow commissioners to hear directly from the community members whose interests lie at the heart of the commission’s work.”

ACE requested a delay to address concerns and clarify confusion and misconceptions raised by Commission staff in each of the public hearings earlier in the month, but their requests were not accommodated.

Additionally, ACE heard from many parents and students who are on fall break during the newly reformatted Commission meetings scheduled for October 5th.  They expressed concern that they would not be able to speak and make their voices heard.  ACE shared their concerns that the voices that really matter – the parents and students in these communities – would not be able to attend.

After being denied yet another year of the education many Tennesseans want for their children, parents aren’t backing down and have instead filed notices that they want ACE to open five classical charter schools in Tennessee, as reported by Joy Pullman, executive editor of The Federalist.

Michelle Garcia, a Rutherford County mother of two who serves on the nonprofit board attempting to open the schools, said, “All of the schools are overcrowded, the county schools can’t build out fast enough.  Between that and the learning loss of Covid, having this public classical charter option is very attractive.”

Garcia stated that not only did school lockdowns and subsequent rolling quarantines of healthy children deeply damage Tennessee parents’ confidence in conventional schools, but many local parents also want the high-quality curriculum and pursuit of virtue championed in classical schools.

A recent poll found that 56 percent of Tennesseans would not send their child to the school their child is zoned for if they were given another choice.

Of note, 59 percent of the heavily Democrat-leaning poll respondents agreed that Tennessee should offer more public school options.

Rutherford County mother of three Mandy Massey said, “The culture has changed so much in school with Covid, we really need something else to come in educationally and shake things up a little bit.”

Massey stated that she hopes the government will allow a classical charter school to open in her area so she can enroll her daughters there.

At current, 22 K-12 schools in 11 states use Hillsdale’s staff training and curricula, and another 50 use its curricula alone. Available data shows them outperforming state averages.

Joy Pullman, executive editor of The Federalist, writes, “Classical, private, and charter schools generally operate at far lower per-pupil costs than conventional public schools and educate to a higher academic level. Charters do so while fulfilling legal obligations to accept any student, including special-needs children and non-native English speakers. Yet for effectively educating citizens in America’s founding principles using classical methods, Hillsdale is the regular target of media smear campaigns such as that in Tennessee.”

About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative  ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career.  Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others.  He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History.  Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com