A line almost got crossed last year (and would have if petty politics hadn't gotten in the way and the clock hadn't wound down... thank goodness!).  Yes, the Charter Authorizer Bill almost passed during last year's Legislative session.  It will undoubtedly come up for vote again this year.

What will the Charter Authorizer mean for school districts?
Locally elected school boards won't have the authority or power to control which charter schools are right for their communities.  An appointed state board will make that decision regardless of what the elected local boards vote, even if the state board has never set foot within the district before.  Then, that district's education dollars will be funneled to the new charter schools and their existing public schools will be starved even more.  Students with involved parents and high test scores will be recruited by the charter schools, depriving existing public schools of involved parents and their high-achieving students.  Public schools in that community will suffer.

Don't believe that would happen in TN?
States with chartering authorities have almost three and a half times more charter schools than states that only allow local board approval (click HERE to see that report).  Other states across the country who already passed this same law are struggling to deal with the effects of the rapid increase of charters.  The law comes from a secretive organization called "ALEC" which stands for the American Legislative Exchange Commission.  ALEC is funded by major corporations that draft model laws to benefit their corporate donors.  ALEC hands the model laws to legislators (some of whom were given campaign contributions by the same ALEC donors) to sponsor and get approved in their states.  ALEC has a radical agenda of privatization, profitization, vouchers, charters, and the elimination of local school boards.  (ClickHERE to see the TN legislators who are affiliated with ALEC.  Yes, you'll see the sponsors of this charter authorizer legislation on the list)

Don't think the TN BOE would force charters in your districts?
Check out what happened just last year to Nashville...  Their locally elected school board rejected Great Hearts Charter chain from Arizona 4 times due to major concerns that it would segregate their communities by charging students fees ($1200-$1500 each), not provide transportation to low income students, require students to pay $350 to purchase textbooks, etc. (Click HERE for details).  Their board researched the chain's other schools in Arizona and realized that it would not meet the needs of their diverse community.  However, the Governor and a few other politicians really, really, really wanted Great Hearts charter school chain in affluent areas of Nashville.  The appointed TNBOE deliberated for only 18 minutes and then demanded that the locally elected board approve the Great Hearts charters in their district.  Metro Nashville Board did not comply.  To punish the Metro Nashville school board for their decision, Kevin Huffman (TN's Commissioner of Education who was appointed by the Governor) fined a heavy penalty of $3.4 million on their already starving school district. All Nashville charter schools were exempted from the fine, so not a penny of the $3.4 million could come from any of the existing charter schools in their district.  Ultimately, the public school students in that district bore the brunt of that punishment, sending a loud warning message to other school boards across TN not to defy the TNBOE, Huffman, or the Governor's wishes.
"Great Hearts now says it will not apply to the Nashville board again. Instead, it will wait until the state legislature creates an ALEC-style law creating a charter-friendly state board that won’t ask annoying questions about the lack of diversity in most of the Great Hearts charters," reports Diane Ravitch. (Click HERE to read the article)


We teach our children that bullying is wrong, and that democracy is a freedom that American soldiers have fought and died to protect...  Tennessee parents see the grave injustice imposed by our government officials and we are both sad and angry that this was allowed to happen.       

The State is definitely crossing a line into taking away local control.  Giving authority to an appointed board make MAJOR decisions for our communities... this is wrong.   
 

So what can YOU do about it???

If you are a legislator, vote NO for the Charter Authorizer bills (HB0702 & SB0830).


If you are an elected school board member, take 15 minutes to send a brief, polite email about why you don't support the Charter Authorizer legislation in TN. (We'll even post the email addresses at the bottom of this email for you).
***Bonus points: include how proud you are of your community's public schools and how much your budgets have been cut the past few years.  


If you are a Superintendent, take a look at your district's budget and try to figure out how you'll afford to pay for new publicly-funded schools that your community doesn't need without hurting the schools you're already pinching pennies to keep afloat.  Oh, yes, don't forget to include the cost of technology for the state mandated PARCC Common Core tests.  Send a brief, polite email to the legislators below and encourage your school board members and parents to send emails, too.


If you are a parent or teacher, email your Superintendent, local school board members, and the legislators listed below.  You may even wish to forward this email to them. 


Email your legislators:
(You may need to copy/paste these email addresses in small batches of 25 emails at a time to send them through your email service provider)

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The Charter Authorizer Bill will probably be one of the first Bills to be voted upon when the Legislative Session starts this week on January 14th.  Last year, it passed the House floor and stalled in the Senate before Legislative session ended.  It will likely be brought up for a Senate vote early in the Legislative Session.  That is why it is so important to speak now.

School Board Members, Superintendents, teachers, and parents:  Your emails sent this week to those legislators listed above could be the difference between this intrusive bill passing or failing.  Thank you for using YOUR voice to make a difference!

That is a fair and valid question raised by a group of concerned parents called, "Momma Bears."  They researched and found out some really suspicious info about StudentsFirst and the way it operates.  Here is an excerpt from their article about StudentsFirst:

"As StudentsFirst pretends to support children, StudentsFirst attacks the very teachers and school environments that nurture and educate children.  Through millions of dollars from corporate interests, StudentsFirst influences campaigns and laws that benefit their wealthy supporters."

"In Tennessee, StudentsFirst by far leads the pack of outside funding to influence elections and legislators.  Why is an organization in California spending so much money in Tennessee? or any state?  Because of the huuuuge profit to be reaped with public tax dollars by turning our public schools into profitable charter schools."

"Momma Bears aren't fooled.  This is definitely NOT a grassroots organization.  "Astroturf" is a better description.  There are no healthy roots, only an expensive layer of fake green plastic that doesn't fool anyone."  
Click HERE to read the entire article about StudentsFirst.  Warning:

... you may be surprised at some of the facts they uncovered.
 
...you might be angry that this organization seeks to take control away from our locally elected school boards.  

...you will be sad to see what has become of schools that followed Michelle Rhee & StudentsFirst's agenda.  

Tennessee parents most certainly do NOT want the same fate for our schools.
 

NOTE:  We see that many TN legislators, and even some local school board members, have received large campaign contributions from StudentsFirst.  In fact 9 of the top 15 campaign contributions last year from StudentsFirst went to Tennessee politicians.  According to the news media, StudentsFirst plans to give and spend even more this year in TN.  

While we can't fault politicians for turning down free campaign funding, we wonder HOW MUCH INFLUENCE does StudentsFirst have over the people that WE cast our votes to elect to represent US?  How much weight do StudentsFirst lobbyists carry when they hand legislators their professional, expensive pamphlets containing beautiful graphs of manipulated data?  Are our legislators and school board members misled hearing their "buzz-words" and empty promises?  Are our legislators gullible or flattered enough to vote against OUR children in favor of corporate profits? 

Are we wasting our time sending these TNparent emails to those we elected?  It takes quite a bit of time to collect, collaborate, edit, and send these emails and post them on our website.  We do this because we believe in public education, and we believe in TN.  We intend to make a difference.  Tennessee parents are awake, and we will be closely watching how our legislators vote.   Tennessee parents will remember at election time, and wise leaders would do well to remember that.  Our voices are strong, but our votes are stronger.   
Please hear OUR voices, not their dollars.

Sincerely,
TN parents 

PS - We see that some TN Board of Education members unsubscribed from our emails...  Clearly Richard Rhoda and Dr. Jean Anne Rogers do not want to hear what Tennessee parents have to say.  Rest assured, we get their message loud and clear.