State Charter Authorizer Steaming Through Resistance

A state panel that could authorize charter schools to open anywhere in Tennessee is moving forward against the objections of Democrats and a few rural Republicans. School boards remain largely opposed as well.

The proposal would require that charter applicants first ask the local school board for permission to open a publicly funded, privately run school. If the answer is no, they could go to the new independent state panel that would have the final say-so.

Rep. Curtis Halford is a Republican from West Tennessee, where there are no charter schools at this point. He spoke against the state authorizer in a House committee.

“Is it just kind of like if you don’t get the answer you want from mom you go to dad?”

If the state panel approves, it would have to oversee the operation of the charter school, even though much of the money to pay for it would be pulled from the local school district.