In a perhaps surprising twist, the House Education Administration Committee decided not to vote on House Speaker Cameron Sexton’s charter school bill, one week after the legislation sailed through a House Subcommittee with no discussion.
The legislation has two parts. The first creates a hybrid charter school system for homeschooling parents who want the support of a traditional in-schooling system. The second allows existing public charter schools to a create tuition-free boarding schools for “at-risk” kids in grades 6-12.
New Home School Choice
Under the first part of the legislation, new home school charter schools would be created to provide three or four days of in-school, in-classroom instruction to students. The remaining days would be provided by homeschooling parents.
The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission would authorize and regulate the system and homeschoolers would have to abide by the standards adopted by the State Board of Education. Students would additionally be able to enroll in any district, but the hybrid institution could charge tuition for the out-of-districts students.
“Parents across the state have become more aware of the struggles and the education system, especially comes to our in-home population, the education and safety of our most at risk students,” said Memphis Representative Mark White who presented the legislation. “It’s known as a charter system for parents desiring stronger support, for parents providing in-home schooling, wanting support and in-school structure.”
Any remedial, tutoring or summer schooling program would still be available to the children under the hybrid system.
Culleoka State Representative Scott Cepicky expressed concern about how the system might impact one of the most important reasons why parents choose to homeschool their children.
“One of the things we try to be careful with when we talk about homeschool is the homeschoolers want to be able to have their autonomy and freedom to educate their kids the way they see fit to do,” said Representative Cepicky.
Serving At-Risk Students
The second part of the legislation would allow existing public charter schools to provide an additional level of service to at-risk children through boarding schools. “At-risk” includes those who are homeless, suffer family dysfunction, have disabilities, or are economically disadvantaged.
“I think it would be advantageous for our state to have such opportunities for such disadvantage children,” said Representative White.
The boarding school proposal found support from multiple committee members but there were questions about how it would be funded and how many students could be served by it.
Committee members decided not to vote on the legislation to allow for additional discussion and invited speakers in its next meeting scheduled for March 15.
