Charter moratorium not in Nashville's best interest

On Tuesday, the Metro Nashville Public Schools Board will discuss whether a moratorium on public charter schools in our community is a good idea. It’s not. At a time when the district needs all hands-on deck to increase the number of high quality seats, now is not the time to forget its goal of providing excellent public school options to all Nashville students.

Of the 159 schools in the MNPS district, only 28 are local-district authorized public charter schools – a fraction of the public options available across Nashville, yet these schools have become more than one-third of the city’s top-recognized State Reward Schools.

It is exaggerated to call this growth “unabated” when MNPS has been nationally recognized for their careful and considerate management of charter school approval and has only approved an average of approximately two new public charter schools per year since 2014.

We are fortunate in Tennessee to have strong charter school accountability policies, many great schools and an active support base of education partners that even the local NAACP leadership has agreed is a leading positive example.

Last month, the president of the NAACP’s Tennessee State Conference and member of the national board commented “in Tennessee, we have some of the best oversight laws” and added that problems associated with charter growth elsewhere in the nation aren’t as prevalent in our state. These words are reassuring that charter schools in Tennessee are moving in the right direction, and ones I hope the MNPS school board will keep in mind as they consider their upcoming resolution.

Rather than debate the same old issues, we should be focused on continuing to move MNPS schools in the right direction together. We should look at schools like Nashville’s STEM Preparatory Academy, which is serving growing numbers of new American students, or Valor Collegiate Academy, which is developing innovative strategies for social emotional learning, as best practices. And, the district should reflect and evaluate areas where help or additional capacity are needed and not be afraid to work hand in hand with the best public charter school operators for the betterment of our public education system.

The answer is not a moratorium, but a thoughtful, more strategic plan from the board and district on how to better leverage public charter schools to help our students succeed. We must raise the bar for all public schools and challenge what is not working. That starts with having open dialogue and fostering collaboration, not hindering it. At the end of the day, most public charter schools in Nashville are a part of the MNPS family. My sincere ask is that the MNPS board will not only embrace existing charter schools as their own, but adhere to the processes laid out in the law to consider new applications and make objective decisions for families who want and deserve high quality public school options for their children.

Maya Bugg is the Chief Executive Officer for the Tennessee Charter School Center, the state’s primary charter school support organization.