Leaders of American Classical Education (ACE) didn’t hold back their criticism of Jackson-Madison County school board members who voted down a proposal to establish the county’s first public charter school.
Following the board’s 5-1 vote to deny Tuesday, ACE board member Dolores Gresham released a scathing press release that claimed the board ignored the voices of local families who want more school options.
“Obviously this is disappointing, but not surprising that the Jackson-Madison school district ignores the voices of parents and instead sides with opponents of school choice who oppose any and all options outside of zoned public schools – regardless of their performance metrics,” said Gresham. “Why are they so afraid of giving families options to choose from versus forcing students to attend only one school regardless of how the school is performing or if it’s a good fit for each student? Americans have options in almost every other area of life – but the Jackson-Madison school board is doubling down on preventing families from having any other options when it comes to their children’s education.”
74 Reasons for Denial
Board members followed a district review of ACE’s amended application that found a total of 74 areas to improve, 23 more than the initial application the board denied in April.
“As the review committee has graded, there are so many things that do not pass the rigor. Regardless of how this is politicized around the state, we have a rubric, we have an application, and it has been reviewed. I think it’s pretty clear at this point what our task is as a Board,” said District 4 Board Member Jason Compton.
The review committee found ACE failed to meet state expectations for academics and curriculum, school operations, and finance.
Reviewers also cited specific concerns regarding the transportation plans for students, calling the application’s expectation that children walk concerning. Employee evaluations and hiring were also concerns for the district review and board members.
“There needs to be a process outlaid for their non-certified teachers. Also, books have been a big topic of conversation in our community recently. Some of their curriculum textbooks are approved and some are not approved. I don’t think that that’s something we can have grace on,” said District 5 Board Member Sherry Franks.
Gresham pushed back on the district’s extensive 74-point checklist, calling it inaccurate and claimed ACE addressed most of the points on the list.
The ACE board member and former state senator also provided pointed criticism for board members opting to prevent families from being able to choose a public charter school when district schools are underperforming.
“In a recently released state report, Jackson-Madison ranked as the 8th lowest district out of 142 districts highlighted in the report. That’s the bottom 6th percentile for 3rd graders in ELA,” said Gresham. “It’s disheartening that the local education bureaucracy continues to deny students options, particularly when Jackson-Madison has three schools on the state’s priority list – which means they are in the bottom five percent of all schools in the state.”
ACE initially applied to open schools in five different counties including Madison this year. Only Rutherford County’s Board approved ACE’s application during the first round of the process. The organization chose to submit amended applications to school districts in Madison County and Maury County where board members are voting tonight.
Under state law, denied charter applications can be appealed to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission and ACE has already filed that appeal for its proposed Madison County School.
Controversial History and Connections
ACE first gained attention last year when Governor Bill Lee expressed support for the organization in his state of the state address, but the group’s fortunes changed following public outcry over American Classical Education’s connections to Michigan based Hillsdale College and controversial statements Hillsdale President Larry Arnn made about teachers on video.
ACE later attempted to distance itself from Hillsdale college, but school boards denied all three of the group’s applications for new public charter schools last year.
ACE opted to withdraw all three appeals from the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission last fall.
