Nashville mayoral candidates debate school choice and literacy ahead of runoff vote

Nashville mayoral candidates Freddie O’Connell and Alice Rolli provided differing views for how to support school choice at the first education-focused debate.During Thursday’s forum hosted by Opportunity Nashville, Rolli said students who attend underperforming schools should have the option of switching to their desired school with district-provided transportation resources.“No one’s child should be made to go to an underperforming school,” said Rolli. “If your child is zoned to a school that has been in the bottom 5 percent for the past three years, that parent should be provided a transportation assistance option to go to another publicly funded school.”Rolli made school choice a more highly publicized part of her campaign following comments in June when she declared she’d consider a takeover of the Metro Nashville Public Schools Board of Education if members continue to push back on public charter schools.The board has a history of opposing new high-quality public charter schools, including last year when members voted down three proposed schools, only to see those votes overturned on appeal with the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission.O’Connell claimed the commission’s decisions to overturn the school board in favor of new public charter schools are hindering the district’s ability to adequately fund its existing schools and staff salaries.“I think the hard part right now is that our ability to maintain that funding is under attack,” said O’Connell. “I think it’s going to be an important urgent conversation to maintain the existing funding levels and ensure that we supplement them with strategies for ensuring that teachers and support staff, and faculty of all kinds in our Metro Schools have adequate housing and other resources.O’Connell did say he’s a big supporter of MNPS’ open enrollment policy, which his family takes advantage of each school year.

Improving Literacy

Rolli continued to advocate for public charter schools throughout the debate including a response to a question about improving literacy rates for economically disadvantaged students.“I would shine a light on what is working in our city,” said Rolli. “We have roughly 10 percent of our city’s children educated in the KIPP Academy schools and Purpose Prep. They have instituted evidence-based, science-of-reading-based models. They are shattering those numbers that we are seeing in our traditional public schools.”Rolli pointed out 80 percent of second-graders at the two public charter schools are reading at grade level. In those schools, 90 percent of students are from economically disadvantaged and underserved communities and Rolli proposes scaling the model for district-wide use.In addressing literacy, O’Connell said he supports investing in and expanding community partnership programs, like the United Way’s Raising Readers Nashville.“It is a remarkable program with a bunch of benchmarks It’s exactly the kind of accountability you want to see in a literacy program.” said O’Connell. “As mayor I hope to restore a model of ‘partner in chief’ where we lean into programs like that.”O’Connell emphasized the importance of community programs that engage with local students to support literacy while also supporting their needs that go beyond the classroom.Both Rolli and O’Connell are Nashville natives as well as former Metro Nashville Public Schools students who have children in the Nashville public school system.The two advanced from a crowded field in the general election earlier this month.  Voters will decide between the two in a runoff vote on September 14.The hour-long debate can be found on Nashville Public Television’s YouTube channel.