Metro Schools won’t receive some $3.4 million it was expecting from the state next month. Governor Bill Haslam says it’s punishment after the Metro school board repeatedly voted to break state law. So far, how Metro will handle the funding gap is not clear.
Metro Board members worried the Arizona-based charter Great Hearts might indirectly filter which students it enrolled, possibly along racial lines. The board refused to authorize Great Hearts, even after the state told it to on appeal, and its own lawyers warned it was breaking state law.
State Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman says losing the money won’t affect Metro students in the classroom, because the move targets the administrative side. Someone noted it could force layoffs, and asked Huffman if that was a way of teaching Metro a lesson:
“Well, I don’t think we’re trying to teach Metro school board a lesson. Metro Nashville has a number of administrative costs; we hope they’ll make decisions wisely about how they spend their money.”
It’s not so simple for Metro, argues school board member Anna Shepherd.
“Actually, that’s not discretionary funds and it’s not administrative costs, it directly affects all of our students.”
Shepherd says it’s unfortunate the Metro board can’t make decisions it was elected to make without “repercussions or intimidation from the state level.”
Enforcing
By now the frustrated Great Hearts charter has given up on opening in Metro next year. Before it came to that, the school board’s own lawyers warned repeatedly that denying Great Hearts’ application was asking for trouble.
Haslam had downplayed the threat of targeting Metro’s funding. But he says he couldn’t just stand by when the school board ignored the state’s order to approve Great Hearts a second time.
HASLAM: “Again, we don’t do this with any sense of trying to use the state’s power in any way, but like any other state law that the General Assembly passes, we’re responsible for enforcing that law, and that’s why we took this action.”
REPORTER: “Governor, about a month ago, you said you didn’t want – you weren’t going to do this, and yet here we are.”
HASLAM: “No, what I said is that the state is about – we’re first and foremost about educating children, and I assumed the Metro school board would see things the same way.”
Charter school advocates have ramped up their call for the state to start approving charters directly, and bypass local boards. Haslam says before, lawmakers didn’t show much appetite to do so – but things could be different now.
Earlier this month public records showed Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman worked behind the scenes to support Great Hearts long before it appealed to the state. Asked yesterday whether he saw any conflict there, Huffman simply said “No.” He also said he warned the Metro superintendent of “possible consequences” if the district didn’t follow the state’s directive.
Links
View the state’s letter (PDF) as well as a response (link, JPG) from Metro Schools.
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