Recent Comments
Re: “The Great, Great, Great Hearts Cluster ...”
>>Great Hearts Academies is a successful charter management organization out of Phoenix. Though the school is the protagonist here — and Shakespeare would be proud — it becomes virtually irrelevant to the telling of the story, falling victim to widening and widening gyres of opinion that overwhelm its central mission of just wanting to open a school and go about its job of educating kids. <<
Irrelevant to the telling of the story? What an absurd thing to say.
Of course it's relevant that Great Hearts:
-- Applied to open five K-12 schools for 4,200 students but wouldn't or couldn't specify when or where those schools would be built.
-- Sought $35 million a year from Davidson county taxpayers, out of which Great Hearts would pocket a cool $3.5 million annual management fee.
-- Seemed a lot less interested in partnering with MNPS to educate kids than in crusading to "redeem" public education from progressive ideas and building the "preeminent public school brand in the country."
-- Claimed that its schools would not be exclusively for the "best and brightest" but also promised prospective parents an SAT average significantly higher than even the best-performing private schools. How does that work exactly? -- Focuses exclusively on the Great Books and Western culture from kindergarten through high school and on creating a culture "in which students can study the high culture of the West free from the distractions of pop culture and postmodern media."
-- Has had the most success finding teachers who fit their "faculty profile"--you know, true believers, the kind of people who "do not shy from presenting students with standards that lift them out of the formless dross of the culture"--at colleges and universities that are overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly conservative.
-- Cares about diversity only to the extent that it is required to by law.
Pretending to be committed to the progressive, 20th-century idea that schools should reflect the diversity of society is the price Great Hearts has to pay to get their $8,000-per-student handout from Nashville taxpayers.
-- Expects families to make "generous" annual financial contributions (still, compared to private school tuition, a bargain!).
-- Readily adopted the arguments and arrogant, elitist, misinformed attitudes of their wealthy Nashville sponsors toward the school board (incompetent idiots) and our neighborhood schools (virtually irrelevant since 1971).
I wouldn't worry too much about your "dog in the hunt," Bruce. Your buddies at the Club have spent 20 years rigging the system so that it's now virtually impossible for a local board to deny a charter application, especially if the applicant is well financed and politically connected. Great Hearts is a special case--just not in the way the culture warriors back at corporate headquarters in Arizona envisioned.
Re: “The Great, Great, Great Hearts Cluster ...”
From the Great Hearts charter application:
Great Hearts teachers across the grade levels and subject areas predominantly have a background in the liberal arts; many come to us from Great Books colleges such as the University of Dallas, Hillsdale College, St. John’s College, and Thomas Aquinas College.
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From FOX Nation:
Young America’s Foundation has released its “Top Conservative Colleges” list at its annual Reagan Ranch High School Conference. In response to widespread requests from parents and students, Young America’s Foundation compiles this annual list of colleges which offer students a conservative college experience.
The Top Conservative College list includes Christendom College, College of the Ozarks, Colorado Christian University, Franciscan University, Grove City College, Harding University, Hillsdale College, The King's College, Liberty University, Patrick Henry College, Regent University, Saint Vincent College, Thomas Aquinas College, Thomas More College, and Wisconsin Lutheran College.
Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/college/2012/03/…
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From CollegeProwler.com
St. Johns College:
Faculty Diversity
African American: 0%
Asian American: 0%
Hispanic: 0%
International: 0%
Native American: 0%
White: 100%
Unknown: 0%
Student Diversity
African American: 1%
Asian American: 2%
Hispanic: 0%
International: 0%
Native American: 0%
White: 97%
Unknown: 0%
Read more: http://collegeprowler.com/st-johns-college…
University of Dallas:
Faculty Diversity:
African American: 0%
Asian American: 3%
Hispanic: 3%
International: 4%
Native American: 0%
White: 86%
Unknown: 2%
Student Diversity:
African American: 1%
Asian American: 5%
Hispanic: 16%
International: 2%
Native American: 0%
White: 71%
Unknown: 3%
Read more: http://collegeprowler.com/university-of-da…