I believe in the value of public education. I believe there is a place for public charter schools in low-income, underserved, low-performing areas. I believe in the right for families to choose private schools over public. What I do not believe in are public monies funding vouchers; or funding charters in non-disadvantaged areas. (Ideally, all public schools in Nashville, in my opinion, should be the quality of magnet schools.) I am deeply aggrieved at the politcal, insiders deal making on behalf of business people wanting to line their pockets at taxpayer expense and wealthy families wanting a private school-like option at that same expense. And I am disappointed in our otherwise stellar mayor. If we are fortunate, we make choices to live the neighborhoods we live in and drive the cars we want and then whether we can afford private schools if we choose to enroll our children in them. Tax payers should not have to pay for that latter choice. If  Tennessee's Republican governor's appointed education commission is allowed to overturn the charter application denial of Nashville's elected school board members, this is a SERIOUS precedent-setting travesty of our democracy.

If Great Hearts' application to start a school in wealthy West Nashville…let's just say I'm glad we are gettin' the hell out of dodge and this is my daughter's last year at Hillsboro High School. The West Nashville charter will bankrupt the beautiful diversity of these two high schools–Hillwood and especially our school, Hillsboro–leaving students who are bused in and students who receive special education services. Other families left at Hillsboro will feel pressure to pull out their children for magnets or GHA and there goes diversity. And there you have it: a private school in the form of a charter. Bingo! No diversity. We need one another. No more segregation and not at tax payer expense! There are so many things I find wrong and unconsionable about the Great Hearts debaucle that I will not address them here, but my new friend Chelle Baldwin does:

We are one
day away from the next Metro school board meeting (Tuesday night the
11th).  Many of you know about the
pending Great Hearts Academy application that the board is supposed to address
at this meeting.  For those of you who
don’t know here is a quick re-cap.

GH of
Arizona applied to open 5 charter schools in Nashville over a 5 yr period.  They were unanimously denied by the board for
not meeting the charter guidelines.  They
amended their application slightly and were again denied unanimously.  They had previously said they would not
appeal to the state but it seems they may have had a little bird talking in
their ear. http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/emails-reveal-how-state-officials-plotted-ways-around-metro-great-hearts-decision

A little
background that you might want to know involves the local businessman, Bill
Deloache, mentioned in that article.  Mr.
Deloache started a for profit charter managing group back in the 90‘s.  He is on the board of a group that formed the
TN charter incubator  http://charterexcellence.org/what-we-do/our-board/ 
as well as being a part of the Great Public Schools PAC.  That PAC paid $10,000 to retain a law firm to
file an amicus brief in the Spurlock vs Fox case in the hopes of keeping
charters out of the segregation case decision. http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/pac-asks-judge-lay-charters-mnps-rezoning-suit  
That was also the PAC that donated the max $7,100 to two of the record
breaking school board campaigns.  The
same two campaigns that received $2,800 from the most recent appointed State
Board of Education member, Janet Ayers, and her husband who proceeded her on
the state board.  It seems that not only
does Mr. Deloache have the ear of our State Education Commissioner but also of
his cousin in law, our pro Great Hearts Mayor, Karl Dean.  http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120816/NEWS04/308160058/Dean-family-relative-influences-mayor-s-charter-school-comments

So after 18
whole minutes of deliberation, if you can call it that, the appointed state
board demanded that our local elected board approve GH with three contingencies
at their next meeting. http://jamiehollin.com/2012/09/06/no-evidence-of-deliberation-by-state-boe-on-great-hearts-appeal/

The local
board had their meeting and after a long discussion decided to table the
application until the contingencies were met. 
Lots of chest thumping went on from the state and finger wagging from GH
who came out in response with this gem of a statement.  “Lawlessness is not leadership, and the
Nashville school board has taught the wrong lesson,”  http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120815/NEWS/308150143/TN-education-commissioner-Nashville-school-board-violates-state-law-charter-delay

So one has
to wonder why our local elected school board is being bullied by our Mayor, his
cousin in law, our state appointed education board and the Governor’s Education
Commissioner.  It seems that GH just
wants to fill a niche in Nashville which is welcomed by 1,000 people who signed
a petition of support.  Support of MNPS
giving 30 million dollars to and AZ charter to set up shop here.  The big buzz word is “choice”.  Parents just want a “choice” for their kids.  They can’t understand why the board has
denied GH 3 times. 

I wonder
how many of these parents understand exactly what they are asking for.  I wonder if they understand the full
ramifications of more “choice” for Metro in the form of a charter that
segregates based on ability, performance and potential wealth of families.  I wonder how many of them actually looked at
the list of 6 priorities listed as guidelines for charter approval.  They are on page 2 of the charter
application.
http://www.mnps.org/AssetFactory.aspx?did=64065   Below I have pasted the response from GH for each of the
priorities and followed up with a comment on each from me in red. 

Metropolitan
Nashville’s District Priorities

The school model of Great Hearts Academies – Nashville is
aligned with the MNPS district priorities. We seek to serve the diverse population of
Nashville and have based our design of Great Hearts Academies – Nashville on the successful high
performing schools in the Great Hearts America network.

1. Great Hearts has a proven approach to English language
instruction. The core of this program, for all students in the lower grades, as well as
for all English Language Learners, is Riggs Phonics, Spelling and Vocabulary. Riggs is a
researched-based approach that integrates grammar and syntax, composition, and vocabulary
to accelerate children’s spelling, reading, and writing skills. The Great Hearts
program has proven to be successful in closing the achievement gap for traditionally underserved
students in the existing Phoenix area schools.  GH has 1 school out of 12 that serves a poverty population.  The ELL % at that school is 1.2% of 249 kids
which equals 3 children.  The other 12
schools average 0.2% ELL.

2. Great Hearts has a proven track record providing high
quality education with limited resources. Despite receiving a per-student allocation
significantly less than what charter schools receive in Tennessee, all Phoenix area Great Hearts
schools are nonprofit 501(c)(3)s that operate in the black and are financially
self-sustainable from the first day of school.  They are able to do this in two ways.  GH Arizona is putting up $480,000 to start
the first school.  Then there are two
fundraising drives that they do in AZ to cover administrative costs and for
extracurriculars.  The same should happen
here in Nashville.  The first is the
community drive in which families are “EXPECTED” to donate $1,200 per student
at 10 of their schools and $1,500 at their Scottsdale location.  The other fundraiser is a tax credit that
allows an individual to donate up to $200 and get a dollar for dollar
credit.  Here is the link if you want to
see for yourself.  http://www.scottsdaleprep.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=42&Itemid=76

3. Although Great Hearts does not operate transformation
schools, it has a proven track record of educating high poverty students in schools that
exemplify the HPHM model put forth by the MNPS. All Great Hearts schools are “No
Excuses” schools, but nowhere is that more evident than at Teleos Prep (the first Great
Hearts academy to serve a majority free and reduced-price lunch population). Student achievement is
at the core of everything we do; students are constantly and consistently encouraged to
transcend and attain their “Teleos,” –their great destiny. Teachers are prepared to do whatever it
takes to eliminate the achievement gap, and to allow no excuse to relieve them of
the burden of this most noble mission. In its short history, Teleos has risen to the top
of the two underperforming districts in which it is located, and now has student growth
percentiles and standardized test rates higher than all but one non-magnet district school.  Teleos Prep is the only
example they ever present. It is 1 school out of 12 that they operate.  None of the other schools serve a significant
population of  FRL students.  The highest percentage of FRL they have in
their other schools is 12%.  Scottsdale
is at 1%. 

4. Great Hearts has a proven approach to closing the
achievement gap for students with disabilities. Great Hearts has an exceptional reputation for
serving special needs students in the Phoenix metropolitan region. Great Hearts complies with
relevant sections of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) by
providing a continuum of special education services, supplementary aides, and related
services to all students who are eligible for services under IDEA. Great Hearts is committed to
ensuring that all students with disabilities receive a high-quality education, including the
specialized instruction, supplementary aides and services, and the related services
necessary to enable achievement to the maximum extent possible. Great Hearts has developed
special education policies and procedures uniform with state and federal law, and has
successfully implemented special education services in all its schools.  This sounded great to me
as a mother of a child with a disability until I actually looked at their
disability numbers.  Their highest % of
students with disabilities is at Teleos and it’s only at 8% (that’s 20 kids
there) and the rest of the schools are at 4% or less.  Their largest school, Scottsdale, is at 1%
which equates to 7 kids.  Metro on the
other hand averages 13% on the West side schools and even our academic magnets
average 5.7%. 

5. Great Hearts America – Tennessee will be committed to
diversity. All Great Hearts schools are economically and racially diverse. Overall in
Phoenix, 30% of Great Hearts students are minority, with most such students being African
American or Hispanic. At Teleos Prep, more than 70% of students qualify for
free and reduced-price lunch (FRL), and although the numbers of FRL students
are lower at other Great Hearts schools, FRL student populations are still
significant. Furthermore, racial diversity is
significant across the GreatHearts Academies. At Archway Chandler, for example,
41% of students are minority, with the majority of those students being African
American or Hispanic. In Phoenix, Great Hearts receives many more applications
than they have openings every year (more than 10,000 applications for fewer
than 1,500 spots for 2011-12, for example). Arizona law does not allow for any
lottery preference for FRL, minority, or students from failing schools.

Annually, Great Hearts does targeted marketing for
traditionally underserved student populations. As a result of this outreach,
the minority and free and reduced-price lunch student populations have
increased dramatically over the last five years. In 2006-07, the minority
student population at Great Hearts schools was 14%; today in 2011-12, it stands
at 30% and is still growing. Great Hearts America – Tennessee will mirror this
same commitment to diversity, with intentional marketing to traditionally
underserved students.  Again they are holding up
Teleos as their example but the first and only school they may be allowed to
open will not serve a FRL student population like Teleos since they refuse to
place it in a diverse area with low income housing within a reasonable
distance.  They have offered a two year
limited transportation plan but that leaves poor kids with no way to get to the
school once it ends so why would they enroll there to begin with?Notice that
there are NO percentages for FRL kids for the rest of their schools but they
instead use the racial definition to cover the “diversity” issue.

6. Great Hearts America – Tennessee is committed to opening
a K-12 school in the North Nashville area. Great Hearts is committed to opening five
schools in the Nashville region, and will distribute those schools broadly across the
metropolitan area. In keeping with the current Phoenix model, Great Hearts America – Tennessee will
leave no region of the metropolitan area underserved by a Great Hearts academy.
Great Hearts has had significant success in its Phoenix area school that deserves a
traditionally underserved student population. Although most students enter well below grade
level and with nationally normed percentiles below the 20th, growth percentiles at the school are
above the state average.

Once
again, the only school that they could potentially open right now is NOT
planned for North Nashville.  They could
put it there if they wanted to but they refuse to do so.

Of the 6
priorities GH only met one, the financial stability guideline.  That was met with some help from AZ Great
Hearts and from expected family donations. 
I just wonder how many families are aware of the expected donation of
$1,200 and up for each student.  I also
wonder if they know the parents are told to budget $350 for books that have to
be purchased for the required list of “consumable books”.  Do the parents know that the lunch program is
a fundraiser run by the PTO with food brought in from local restaurants like Chick-fil-A
and Pei-Wei. http://scottsdalepreppo.com/?page_id=30

It
is clear to me why the board has reservations about the GH application.  For a school that loves to toot it’s own horn
about how diverse they are and the amazing results they get one would wonder
why MNPS didn’t just wave the 5 schools right in and hand them a check with 6
zero’s on it.  Upon closer inspection of
a chart that they provided of their school population for the amended application
it seems that GH idea of diversity starts and stops with skin color in 11 of
their 12 schools.  Apparently they are
not aware of the studies that show that children of poverty are not lacking in
ability but rather in achievement.  It is
shown that poverty is directly correlated with achievement.  It is also shown that putting Free and
Reduced Lunch (FRL) children in schools with non poverty children improves
their performance.  And contrary to the
belief of many it does NOT hurt the performance of the higher achieving
student.  As a matter of fact the same
rules apply to students with disabilities. 
They will rise up to meet the performance of  their higher achieving peers.  So why would GH make it a point to segregate
their student population to have minimal if not non existent numbers of
students that are disadvantaged in some way?

The
answer is easy.  It’s about scores.  It’s about the perception of excellence that
is touted in percentages of students getting into “highly selective” colleges,
as GH likes to call them, on their quarterly reports.  Appearances are everything to some and
apparently the goal is not “choice” and ultimate success for ALL students but
rather “choice” for the select few.  The
funny thing is that Nashville already understands that segregating higher
achieving students like the one’s that qualify for ENCORE and the academic
magnets produces wonderful numbers and success stories of college
acceptances.  But they also understand
that taking the cream of the crop out of all the schools will ultimately do
more harm to achievement of the kids that are left than anyone can imagine.

I’m
not sure how GH plans to circumvent the open enrollment system and resulting
lottery if they do get approval.  One
thing is for sure they sure have figured out how to do it in AZ based on their
numbers. 

Now
compare those numbers to the numbers that I complied of the schools that GH was
comparing themselves to along with the numbers from the middle and high schools
on the west side of town where GH plans to set up shop and pull students
from. 

A
true open enrollment and lottery school in Nashville should get you a FRL
population of 46% (if you provide transportation) and a special education
population of 12%.  Those numbers are a
far cry from any averages they have in their Arizona schools.

Here
is what I know for sure.  Nashville needs
to sit down and figure out exactly what our education system is going to look
like in 10 years.  We need to figure out
ways to make every school great so every kid is getting the opportunity that
they deserve.  Dividing people up with
random lotteries and luck is not the way to make a cohesive public education
system.  Micromanaging teachers to the
millionth degree is also not going to help the system.  But what REALLY isn’t going to help the
system is to give millions of our education dollars to an out of state
organization that is going to pull the best students we have out of the
traditional schools.  And what I believe
to be the ultimate plan of Mr. Deloache and others of having Nashville become
the next Houston or New Orleans with charters all over town like Starbucks is
the worst possible scenario I could ever imagine for this great city.

I
welcome any questions about this and I hope that after you read it you will
share it with all your Nashville friends. 
It doesn’t matter if they have kids in school or not as this decision
will affect everyone in Nashville as their tax dollars either go to AZ or stay here.  I’m all for improvement of our system but I
want it done right and I want everyone to have ALL the details before they put
their support behind something.  I
appreciate your time and voices for our education system.

Sincerely,

Chelle
Baldwin

Proud
mother of two at Sylvan Park Paideia