By Joey Garrison
(From The Tennessean, March 18th, 2013)
As Metro schools officials dig in to halt legislation that would create a new state panel able to authorize charter schools, their final argument is a fiscal one: protecting the purse of Metro government.
New charters, plotted in Nashville so sporadically and in bulk by state bureaucrats, could burst the city’s budget even in the short term, they contend.
But backers of publicly financed, privately operated charters are fighting back. The very fact Metro Nashville Public Schools can’t find a way to offset the costs speaks to the school system’s rigidity, some suggest.
Besides, why not deliver public dollars to charter schools that they argue outperform the district?
“It’s not the price of public charter schools that’s too high,” begins an online video created by Democrats for Education Reform, a new group with education views opposite of many in the same party. “It’s the price of running consistently lousy district schools that is.”
Eighteen charters are already set to operate in Nashville next school year, with more growth projected even without a change in law.
At issue is a bill that would create a nine-member appeals panel to vote on charter applicants denied by local boards, a proposal born out of Metro’s repeated denial of Great Hearts Academies’ charter plan for West Nashville last year.
The bill, pushed by House Speaker Beth Harwell and Mayor Karl Dean, heads to the House’s Budget Subcommittee on Wednesday.