There Are Cultural Barriers on Bransford Avenue

That may be the least shocking headline of all time, for anyone familiar with the workings of the Metro school system anyway. By the way, we don’t mean those kinds of cultural barriers. We mean the kinds of cultural barriers that wind up screwing public school kids whose families have little money or clout. School administrators are not only loathe to embrace school choice in the form of charter schools, but they also regard them as the piranha of the school district, eating up per-pupil dollars that would otherwise be tossed right back into the same failing schools that made charters necessary in the first place. No matter how well charter schools perform, no matter how curious they motivate kids to be, they represent a reform idea that lifelong government school officials simply don’t embrace. And that mindset is an enormous barrier to progress. And, just as it has been many times before, that was evident at last week’s school board meeting when a charter review committee led by senior administrative staffers recommended three charter school applications be denied. The good news is that these schools, and the people behind them who spent the better part of a year preparing their reams-long applications, will be able to return in two weeks with revisions that may ultimately lead to approval. But in the meantime, what went down went a long way to expose the built-in biases against these determined individuals who have new and different ideas. The hopelessly screwed-up process went like this. We’ll use LEAD Academy director Jeremy Kane, who mortgaged his house to spend 10 months on his charter school application, as an example: * On Thursday, Nov. 9, Kane and several of his board members (at least one of whom is misidentified in the charter review committee’s report, by the way) meet for over three hours with members of the review committee. Committee members ask skeptical questions about how committed LEAD Academy board members really are in the endeavor, seeing as how they are busy, influential people. (Meanwhile, one of them flew in for Houston, just for the occasion.) The meeting is closed to the public, and even to school board members, probably in violation of the Open Meetings Law and of what the state Board of Education advises. * On the morning of Monday, Nov. 13, school board members receive a brief document from the review committee stating that the LEAD Academy application, and the applications of two other charter schools, are being recommended for denial. * On the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 14, Kane, having learned nothing about the status of his application, attends the school board meeting, optimistic and eager to hear the fate of LEAD. After a few brief questions, school director Pedro Garcia’s No. 2, Sandy Johnson, announced that the applications should be denied. Very little information is offered, and Kane still doesn’t receive the brief document outlining the concerns about his application. * Kane has a restless night. By Wednesday morning, Nov. 15, he still hasn’t received any communication from the schools or from the committee about the status of his application. Not until he calls a school board member does he get the document. “For him to show up, sit in a meeting, be denied and still be wondering the next day why he’s rejected is very thoughtless,” one pro-charter school observer says. But there’s more going on here than discourteousness. By muddying the process, closing meetings, shutting out even school board members, the administration is in block-and-tackle mode. Another charter school supporter says, “They’re trying to frustrate and exhaust people who want to bring an application.” In what may be a signal that the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce is growing some testicles, its new CEO Ralph Schulz (who is on the LEAD Academy board) apparently confronted Garcia—sternly—about last week’s cool reception to the three charter school applications. Keep the heat on, Ralph.