On Friday, the Tennessee Public Charter Commission both agreed and disagreed with the Metro Nashville Public School board on two respective new start charter school applications. The nine-member commission was created and appointed by Gov. Bill Lee to hear charter school appeals and, if deemed appropriate by the committee, override local decision makers.
Both Invictus Nashville Charter School and Nashville Collegiate Prep High School applied to the MNPS school board in April and then appealed the board’s decision in July. Neither was approved by the school board. In its October quarterly meeting, which stretched over two days, the charter commission overrode MNPS’ decision to deny Invictus Nashville Charter School, a K-8 Montessori-style school slated for the McGavock cluster. The school is slated to start operating during the 2024-25 academic year.
The commission upheld MNPS’ denial of Nashville Collegiate Prep High School. While the operator already has a K-8 school in the Cane Ridge cluster, it will not be able to add high school grades due to the decision of the local school board and the commission.
Alongside other charter applications that were considered, on Thursday the commission approved an American Classical Academy for the Jackson-Madison County School District and denied an ACA application for the Maury County School District. Earlier this year, the Rutherford County school board approved another ACA at the local level.
These schools, operated by American Classical Education, attracted a lot of attention and controversy last year because of their connections with Michigan’s conservative Hillsdale College. While some critics raised concerns about the university’s conservative curriculum that would be used in the proposed charter schools, others were upset that Hillsdale president Larry Arnn made insulting comments about teachers — which Gov. Lee heard but did not rebuke. ACE sought to open schools in Rutherford County, Clarksville-Montgomery and Jackson-Madison school systems in 2022, but ultimately withdrew their applications after several contentious charter school commission hearings.
While ACE board member and former state Sen. Dolores Gresham applauded the charter commission’s decision to approve a Madison location, she also said she was “confused and disappointed that the Commission denied the opening of a third school in Maury County. … The local ACE board and its families are evaluating all options going forward.”
