By Debra Wines
Since Governor Lee gave his State of the State address last week, there has been numerous articles written about his proposals regarding the funding of Tennessee’s education goals for K-12 grades. He has some good ideas concerning the focus of educational programs that will benefit our students and prepare them for jobs for the present and future. I agree with him that not all students need a college education, but they will need some kind of vocational specific educational advanced training. This will require shifting some funding and recruiting certified teachers for those programs.
Governor Lee also proposed doubling the funding for charter school facilities to $12 million over the previous budget. This money would be used to buy property for new charter schools and upgrade existing charter schools. Currently, in Tennessee, charter schools service approximately 35,000 students, which is 3.5% of the entire student population. State teachers will be getting a “whopping” 2% to 2.5% raise. Then he announced he wanted $25 million for an “Education Savings Account” which would allow for approximately 5,000 students to have vouchers to attend private schools.
Charter schools have been around since the early 1990’s. Tennessee approved charter schools in 2002. I did not realize that charter schools are considered public schools. They do have to hired certified teachers, at least here in Tennessee and more states are making sure they follow those guidelines. They are supposed to abide by each state’s educational recommendations and they are not supposed to discriminate regarding the children they accept into their schools. They are considered public schools, and get public funding. Yet, they are not governed by a state’s education department, but a different entity and they are “managed” by nonprofit or for-profit management groups. This situation is where charter schools can run into various problems and the problems can manifest in a dozen different ways. Several schools, across the country, have failed because the management companies have been run by less than “honest” people. From the information I have been researching, several associations have been created to try and standardize the management of charter schools and how they are run.
In the meantime, there are numerous “growing pains” with this type of school. When charter schools were started in Minnesota, they were founded by educators and parents who believed the public-school systems were not addressing their issues effectively and these concerned people wanted to have more control over the education of their children. I can understand that, but they lost me when they decided charter schools would be public schools, funded with taxpayer dollars, and at the same time be different than public schools. After researching this, I still do not understand why they choose to become “public” schools. If they were dissatisfied with the education their children were already receiving in their local public school, why didn’t they work with their local school system to improve things? Perhaps they did try and failed. I understand that too. Why didn’t they just go ahead and create private schools? From what I have read, they had to jump through hoops, red tape, and government bureaucracy in order to become a public school that still had to meet specific educational standards. They had to develop a separate governing body to oversee how their schools were run and had to hire outside contractors to manage the running of the schools. Several years ago, the assumption was these schools were started as “quasi-religious schools”, but I have not found any evidence of that in the recent information I was researching. One of the more positive aspects of these schools is having less children in each class. They are able to limit the number of students they accept and it is understandable that less children in a classroom does make it easier for teachers to provide more attention to each child’s educational needs.
Again, I must ask the question, if public funds are used for these charter schools as a way to improve the level of educational outcomes, and they are considered public schools, why isn’t that money going to improve the public schools we already have in our communities? Governor Lee seems to think charter schools are better than a community’s public-school system. I understand the frustration of parents who live in areas where there are no charter schools, and feel money that could improve the schools in their communities is being diverted to schools that their children aren’t able to attend.
The voucher issue is an entirely different problem. The $25 million he is proposing for his “Education Savings Account” pilot plan, will use state money to fund education for children attending private schools. The plan is a little light on details, but it still boils down to using money from public schools to help fund private schools. Most of those private schools are run by religious organizations, therefore, in a sense, making the lines between church and state a bit more fuzzy. Will the state, at some point, issue restrictions on which religious schools or the types of private schools would be allowed to accept state funded vouchers? What kind of accountability will be put on the schools that get this money from the vouchers? Who will control the funds in this Education Savings Account, the state or the families of the students?
The Director of the Department of Education, Betsy DeVos, believes privatization of America’s educational system is a much better way to educate our children. Some people feel the Federal Department of Education should be turned over to the individual states. Governor Lee seems to be pushing Tennessee’s educational system towards Betsy DeVos’ idea of privatizing education. Giving $12 million to charter schools, run by private management groups and limiting students allowed in their schools, doesn’t seem like public education. Suggesting $25 million should be used by 5,000 students to attend private school, isn’t supporting public education.