American Classical Education (ACE) will have to overcome opposition from one of Tennessee’s historically black colleges and universities if it’s going to successfully open the first public charter school in Madison County.Lane College ‘s Chief of Staff/Vice President of Institutional Advancement Darlette Samuels was among those speaking against ACE’s appeal to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission. Samuels says Lane College has a close working relationship with the Jackson-Madison County School District and she has concerns about ACE’s application.“It is my understanding that there have not been any community meetings to educate students and parents about the proposed charter school and to get the community buy in,” said Samuels. “Lane College does not oppose charter schools, but we do strongly support public education.”¶
It’s the only instance this year where an institution of higher learning has weighed in on a public charter school application or appeal. Nearly 69 percent of public charter school students statewide are African American.Jackson-Madison County School Board members denied ACE’s application to open a public charter school in July citing 74 reasons for the denial. ACE appealed to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission whose members have the option of overturning local district denials and this week commissioners hosted a public hearing for supporters and opponents to provide input.Jackson-Madison County School District Chief Innovation Officer Dr. Teresa McSweeney told commissioners the school board voted against ACE’s application because it had vision but not the necessary details to open a successful school.McSweeney said ACE not only lacks a detailed plan for where the school would draw students, it has deficiencies in its academic, budget, and transportation plans.“A vision is not a plan, and the Tennessee Charter Commission rubric requires a clearly defined plan for opening a new school,” said McSweeney. “We’ve raised significant areas of concern in the areas of academic design and operations plan and capacity.”ACE pushed back on that criticism, arguing the organization’s Classical education model has proved effective in other communities and pointing out the academic challenges schools in the district are facing.“This is an application and a program that has been found by other school boards in Tennessee to meet the standard, so we feel confident that what has been proposed in our application does meet the Tennessee rubric,” said ACE CEO Joel Schellhammer. “This curriculum has consistently achieved results that go far beyond the latest scores here in Jackson-Madison. Most recently those TCAP (Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program) scores being 23 proficiency in ELA (English language arts) across the district and only 18 percent proficiency in Math.”ACE also made the case its educational model is needed in the district that currently has no public schools offering a Classical education.¶
Andrew Thomas told the commission that’s a challenge for his family as he can’t afford to send all three of his sons to private school.“Our family wants this educational option, Classical education, because I was raised that way. I can’t afford any of the private schools around here but I have to because I want Classical education,” said Thomas.The commission is scheduled to vote on ACE’s appeal next month.
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.This year ACE found approval for a proposed public charter school in Rutherford County but school board members in Maury, Robertson, and Montgomery County voted down the organization’s application in addition to Madison County.ACE chose only to appeal the denials in Madison and Maury County.¶
