Supporters of the Tennessee Volunteer Military Academy believe their public charter school model is the solution to the school to jail pipeline too many students are following.
The proposed school would offer more than 400 hundred 6th through 12th graders in Shelby County the opportunity to attend a free full-time military academy beginning next year and additionally gain experience with leadership and enhanced career technical education with a first responder focus.
School Chairman of the Board Antwane Bohanon says the proposed charter would go beyond the normal JROTC experience with class cadets assigned to squads, platoons, and companies.
“What we have is a framework of credentials to help our children understand that they can have pride in their community, pride in their neighborhood, pride in their city, pride in their county, and pride in their state and those are the things that are in our expertise are currently missing in today’s youth,” said school Chairman of the Board Antwane Bohanon. “This is what we provide, an overall framework in an academic setting to allow for students to strive and do more in life than just come to school, do their homework, and go home.”
School board members with Memphis-Shelby County Schools voted down the Tennessee Volunteer Military Academy’s application last July and its board appealed to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission hoping to have that decision overturned.
The commission held a public hearing Thursday where Memphis-Shelby County Schools Assistant Superintendent of Charter Schools Brittany Monda laid out the district’s concerns.
Some of the most critical worries involve a lack of information how the proposed school would serve students with special needs.
“The academic plan and curricular choices are unclear and pose alignment concerns with Tennessee state requirements,” said Monda. “The applicant declines to respond to feedback on a plethora of questions and concerns throughout this section regarding outlining a clear plan for ELL (English Language Learners) and students with disabilities.”
Monda says there were also concerns about the proposed charter school’s finances and its unusual request for a waiver to recruit students from multiple school districts in Shelby County.
“The communities for which this school plans to recruit and enroll are scattered across the city,” said Monda. “It is unclear on the demand for the school as support from community partners and parents are limited.”
Supporters with the Tennessee Volunteer Military Academy see the request to involve students from across district lines as a key component to its goals of having a balanced and diverse cadet population that’s similar to what cadets will find within the United States Armed Services or in their post education civilian life.
This military model is proposed to provide students with necessary experience working with a team and structure to thrive in the real world.
“There’s some kids who don’t have a chance. They don’t have a chance and after the pandemic there’s some kids who will never catch up in life unless we think outside the box and do some things kind of outside the regular,” said one supporter of the school.
The charter commission plans to decide the Tennessee Voluntary Military Academy’s appeal along with one additional appeal from Memphis next month.
