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On this thread, I’ll explain how taxpayer-funded, privately run charter schools are forcing the closure of two of Nashville’s traditional public schools that are iconic in the city’s civil-rights movement. 1/
I just got around to watching the game tape from yesterday’s @MetroSchools Budget & Finance Committee meeting. Anyone who knows how the Nashville School Board works knows that the actual board meetings are a sham. The real work gets done in committees. 2/
For fiscal year 2020-21, the school system is facing a flat operating budget at $915 million. However, in the middle of this unprecedented revenue crisis, @MetroSchools Director* Adrienne Battle is proposing to give charter schools $6.6 million in additional funding. 3/
In order for Battle to fund growth of private charter schools, other areas of @MetroSchools must be cut. So where is she looking to cut in order to feed private charter schools? Answer: Shuttering iconic civil-rights public schools. 4/
To help increase funding for private charter schools, Battle is proposing to to close the historic Buena Vista Elementary School in North Nashville, which was one of the city’s original public schools to integrate in 1957. 5/
Further, Battle is pushing for additional funds for private charter schools by closing Robert Lillard Elementary School, which was named for a groundbreaking civil-rights pioneer who served as a councilman for 20 years. 6/
During yesterday’s @MetroSchools Budget & Finance Committee, no school board member had the awareness or guts to confront the elephant in the room: Private charter schools are forcing the closure of traditional public schools that are part of our city’s civil-rights history. 7/
The only comment came from “committee chair” @ginipupo, who casually suggested that the school board might want to just “toss the ball back into the court of Council.” Meaning: She thinks the buck doesn’t stop with her and Battle, but with the Metro Council. 8/
Closing Buena Vista and Lillard elementary schools (and other schools not listed in this thread) will result in job losses and damage to Nashville’s civil-rights history — all in service to taxpayer-funded, private charter schools. 9/
