Key Republicans in the state legislature are looking to make it even easier for charter schools to expand by allowing them to bypass the local approval process.
Charter schools are funded by tax dollars but operate privately. Right now, charters have to ask their school district for permission to operate. If they’re rejected, they can appeal the ruling to the state. That option was already controversial to school board members because it overruled their decisions.
A new state bill sponsored by Sen. John Stevens, R-Huntingdon, and Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, and would go even further, allowing existing charter schools to directly apply to the state to open additional sites. White chairs the House Education Committee and Stevens serves as a vice-chair of the Finance, Ways and Means committee.
Other charter applicants may skip the local approval process entirely if the Public Charter School Commission has overturned at least three applications denied by the local district within a three-year span. It would also make it easier for them to operate in underused school buildings, rather than needing to lease from the district.
Among the supporters of the bill is Charlie Friedman, founder of Nashville Classical, a charter in East Nashville. Last year, the school board rejected his application to open a second site in West Nashville despite meeting the standards to open, according to the district’s Office of Charter Schools. Friedman appealed and was later given approval by the state.
“I think our experience of both going through an authorization in the past year and a facility search in the past few years has really opened my eyes to some of the systemic and systematic barriers that our students and families face. And our students and families are public school students and deserve these opportunities,” Friedman said at a Tennessee Charter School Center press conference on Tuesday.
But critics of the bill worry of rapid expansion of charter schools, arguing it’ll take money away from traditional public schools and further weaken local control. In Nashville, four charter schools are waiting to be approved by the school board, including KIPP, which already operates seven schools in the city.
The legislation is scheduled to be heard by the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday afternoon.
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