Sit in on a Metro Nashville School Board meeting or turn to any Tennessean article that mentions education, and you’ll hear quite a bit of charter school bashing. If you only listened to certain school board members, you would think that charters are the spawn of Satan himself. Too bad that when the results come out, it’s traditional public schools that should be sent to the principal’s office for bad behavior. A recent report shows that the number of “priority schools”—or those performing so poorly that they are subject to being taken over by the state, and potentially converted to charter schools—has nearly tripled. There are now 15 low-performing schools in Nashville, up from six last year, and none of which are those despised charter schools. The problem is that when you point your finger at someone, the other three are always pointing back at you. Our anti-charter school board members need to end their tirade and do a bit of housekeeping. Casting blame on the wrong party, especially the schools that are consistently out-performing their peers, does nothing to better educate our children. In fact, it appears it’s only made things worse. -Justin Owen
KEEP IN TOUCH WITH US
LATEST POSTS
Policy in Action: A Recap of the 2025 Legislative Session
The 2025 legislative session saw monumental wins for freedom in Tennessee.
Expanding Opportunity: The Future of Education in Tennessee
Join us for the first installment of Beacon's new quarterly webinar series!
First Principles Series: The Policy Case Against Tariffs
It was free trade, not tired old tariff policies, that made us the strongest country in the world.
First Principles Series: The Legal Case Against Tariffs
The separation of powers in the Constitution is a crucial bulwark against tyranny and for preserving liberty.
Artificial Intelligence: Friend or Foe?
The unanswerable question seems to me, do the goods of AI outweigh the evils?
Fact Checking Claims on Education Freedom Scholarships
With the bill passing, there has been an enormous amount of misinformation spread about what the legislation actually does. We seek to set t...
Tennessee: The Land of Opportunity
By working with Tennesseans from one corner of the state to the other, we can make this bold vision a reality and make Tennessee the land of...
Beacon Poll: January 2025 Results
Today, we released our latest installment of the Beacon Poll, a statewide survey of 1,200 registered Tennessee voters comprised of questions...
KEEP IN TOUCH WITH US
WANT TO DO A STORY ABOUT SOMETHING YOU SEE HERE?
CONTACT US AT:
mark@beacontn.org
(O) 615-383-6431
WHO ARE WE?
The Beacon Center of Tennessee empowers Tennesseans to reclaim and protect their freedoms, so that they can freely pursue their version of the American Dream.