Metro Nashville Board of Education may be avoiding a new state law by scheduling its charter school vote a month early

Logos for the Forge (left), the Rock Academy (center) and Rocketship (right)

Last April state lawmakers approved legislation that supporters say will help take the politics out of the approval process for public charter schools.

Under current law, most charter applicants first apply to their local school board for an approval process that’s supposed to follow state guidelines for quality. Denied charter applicants have the option of appealing to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission if they believe these guidelines weren’t followed.

Background: New state charter school law

One reason why supporters pushed for the new law came from decisions in Nashville. The commission has overturned at least one charter denial from Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) in each of the last four years and that’s created concerns that local politics may be impacting the application process. The new law was designed to address those concerns by giving applicants the ability to apply directly to the charter commission if they want to open a school in a district that’s had three charter denials overturned in three straight years.

Like most laws passed this year, it doesn’t take effect until July 1, 2025, and the MNPS Board of Education may have just avoided the legal impact by unexpectedly scheduling charter votes a month early.

MNPS Board’s early charter vote decision

The board decided late last week to hold votes on amended applications from the Rock Academy, the Forge School, and Rocketship Public Schools at Tuesday night’s meeting. That’s more than a month earlier than last year’s July 23 vote on amended charter applications and the July 25 vote in 2023. The board voted all three down in April but multiple members indicated interest in approving the Rock Academy’s application with changes in the amended application phase.

That possibility received a setback with the release of the MNPS Charter Schools Office Review Team’s review of each proposed school’s amended application, recommending denial for all three.

Reviewers say both the Rock Academy and the Forge only partially met state standards, citing concerns about recruitment, enrollment, facilities, and both schools’ operating budget.  The district’s team found Rocketship’s amended application met state standards for its operations plan but only partially met the other categories with concerns about the charter operator’s academic performance record, recruitment and enrollment, and community support.

If denied all three applications would have the option of appealing to the charter commission in the fall.

Charter schools are free public schools operated by a non-profit entity under a “charter” with a school district or the state.