Nashville Charter Schools Find New Sports Partner After Being Dumped By MNPS
Image Credit: TMSAA
The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –
After being banned by Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) from participating in middle school sports, the city’s public charter schools have found a new organization that will allow them to continue to offer the same sports programs.
Nashville’s charter schools have joined forces with the Tennessee Middle School Athletic Association (TMSAA) to offer sports to middle school students for the upcoming school year.
Laurie Brown, senior vice president of Nashville Advocacy for the Tennessee Charter School Center says the move may end up being beneficial for students.
“Because TMSAA is managed directly by the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, our students will also receive exposure to and an increased alignment with the TSSAA, the organization they will play in when they get to high school,” said Brown. “We are grateful to TMSAA for opening their arms to our students, and we are excited for a great school year ahead.”
The move comes just weeks after MNPS announced that they would no longer allow charter school students in grades 5-8 to participate on sports teams at MNPS public schools. This change would take place on July 1.
The announcement drew criticism from parents, board members, and community organizations and left charter school directors scrambling to find a solution so those students were not left without those extracurricular athletic opportunities.
Stephanie Whitt, executive director of government watchdog organization The Beacon Center, calls the change a needless attack.
“Instead of trying to provide the best quality education to our children, MNPS has decided to plot revenge against families who choose public charter schools to obtain a better education,” said a statement from The Beacon Center.
MNPS argues that state law requires that charter schools receive the same per student funding as other public schools. Because charter schools have autonomy in their decisions regarding curriculum and extracurriculars, MNPS says they can use that same autonomy to develop their own sports programs.
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In a statement, MNPS stated, “Given the current and anticipated future growth in charter seats, we believe they have the capacity to use their resources to develop a parallel middle school sports program, allowing our district to focus on further developing and improving the programs we offer to MNPS students.”
Dwayne Tucker is the CEO of LEAD public schools which oversees six public charter schools in the Nashville area. He says the charter schools had no chance to provide any input prior to the decision by MNPS.
“Under Tennessee law, charter schools are public schools,” Tucker said. “The majority of our schools are chartered by the MNPS District. To walk away from that without any communication at all about what the rationale was behind the decision and leaving us to then go out to start a new league with just two month’s notice, I just find it unacceptable.”
MNPS board member Fran Bush seems to agree.
“The children got caught in the middle of this, this political war about money, and it should never be about money. It should be about these children,” said Bush.
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
