Thinking Ought to Trump Believing
“Believing is a disposition. We could tire ourselves out thinking, if we put our minds to it, but believing takes no toll.”
― Willard Van Orman Quine
More and more we seem to begin our public discussions by staking out our positions on polar ends and then refusing to move inward. maybe, that's the way we've always done it, but it'd be nice if we'd switch up things. Maybe recognize our commonality and then work outward. Might discover we don't have to travel all the way to the polar ends to find solutions.
But what would be the fun in that?
This week has raised a pair of issues that epitomize our inability to hold a sensible conversation.
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Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) has raised the question of the possibility of Tennessee refusing federal dollars and by de facto the stipulations and requirements that come with those funds.
On the surface, it seems like a ridiculous idea, and that thought is enforced by Sexton's inability to adequately articulate his intentions.
There are a few things we need to clarify when it comes to Federal money. First of all, it doesn't come without stipulations and costs.
Tennessee receives roughly $1.8 billion dollars in Federal money annually, but what do we spend it on, and what does it cost us to meet the requirements associated with that money?
Accounting systems must be built to justify monies. There is paperwork that must be filed, which requires additional manpower hours. Materials that must be bought to meet requirements set forth by the Federal government. These are just a couple of quick areas that come to the top of my head.
Then there is accepting of the dictates put forth by the Federal government. Just because something is labeled "diversity" and "equity" doesn't mean that it actually promotes those goals. Definitions vary, and we should be able to discuss those definitions.
There has been a quick move to define this conversation as another battlefront in the war between the Red and the Blue.
Not so quick. As State Representative Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka) told me, "There are some Republicans that are all for this and some that are not. I look forward to reading the report that the group produces."
Let's not act like the Federal government has a pristine record, or that everything the state has done is an abject failure. When it comes to education policy I don't think either party has clean hands, let alone federal or state governments.
The number $1.8 billion is tossed around like it's a definitive number but I don't know that it is. And a little bit of confirmation may shine a little light on exactly what's at stake.
So what's the harm in a conversation?
My experience is that when people are opposed to a conversation, it's because they are concerned that certain hidden truths will be revealed.
Maybe that is not the case here, but maybe it is.
State Senator Jon Lundberg (R-Bristol) will lead the new group, along with State Representative Debra Moody (R-Covington). For his part, Senator Lundberg welcomes the opportunity to hold a conversation about the use of Federal money in education.
Lundberg told me, "For me, it's about answering three questions. What does the money do for us, what do we get for it, and, how much does it cost us?"
Fellow Joint Working Group member State Representative John Reagan shares Lundberg's enthusiasm. He said, "I'm grateful for the Speaker's faith in me and the opportunity to be part of this group."
In the lawmaker's eyes, the federal government has been increasingly aggressive in its attempts to insert itself into state governance policies. Ragan characterizes the Federal government's ever-increasing stipulations as an overreach and welcomes the opportunity to discuss where that overreach should end.
He points out that federal money is not just derived from the Department of Education, but also through other departments like Agriculture and Defense.
The Joint Working Group charter tasks the group with looking at all federal education dollars, and he wonders if there can't be some separation of funding accepted by the state. In other words, the placing of stipulations on money from both sides, taking on more of a partnership relations, instead of its current status as more one-directional.
Not everyone is as excited about discussing Federal funding as Lundberg, who also chairs the Senate Education Committee, and Ragen.
State Senator Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) told me, "I don’t see why we’d study how to blow a $1.8 billion hole in the state budget."
“Tennesseans would still pay those taxes, but the benefit would go to the other 49 states", Yarbro expressed concern that such an action would require Tennessee to "ramp up its reliance on sales and property taxes just to maintain the status quo.”
The State Senator added, "You don’t really need an accounting degree or a legislative study committee to recognize the fiscal irresponsibility."
I understand that argument, but blindly accepting money without examining costs or unintended consequences isn't exactly a picture of financial prudence either.
I have this kind of conversation with young bartenders on a regular basis. In their eyes, making $200 in tips for a shift is a great night. And it may be.
Unless catering to only certain folks - ignoring others - to secure those tips costs you $100, or failing to do some additional task, translating to you leaving $100 on the table.
Making $250 is awesome unless you could have made $400.
Talking about Federal money may reveal some additional opportunities available that we didn't see because we were blindly following the USDOE.
Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), as one of the largest school districts in the state, would be greatly affected by any effort to refuse, or limit, federal money. They use that money to educate the large population of English Language learners and students with learning challenges who live in the district. The naming of the Joint Working Group deeply concerns school district leaders.
"Federal funds are used for some of our highest-needs schools and student populations, such as students with disabilities, students experiencing poverty, and our English learner students." Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) Communications Chief told me in an email, "Federal funding is also a significant portion of our school nutrition budget. This is in addition to the COVID relief funding we received through ESSER, which has gone to fund many of our district-wide academic and wrap-around supports for students"
“We have significant concerns about any plans to eliminate federal funds and hope that lawmakers will act with extreme caution before making any decisions that could reduce or eliminate support systems for our students in need. We would suggest that instead of supplanting federal funds with state dollars, the state uses those additional funds to supplement the underfunded public school system in Tennessee.”
Joint Working Group member State Representative William Slater (R-Gallatin), acknowledged the importance of the federal funds in serving students, but said, "Tennessee taxpayers send money to the Federal Government in buckets, but it comes back to us in dribbles with strings attached. It's worth looking at those strings and what they cost Tennesseans."
JC Bowman, executive director for Professional Educators of Tennessee (PET), questions whether the Tennessee Department of Education has the capacity to adequately oversee the additional Federal dollars.
"Speaker Cameron Sexton and Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally identify legitimate concerns about the bureaucracy associated with federal education funding." Bowman said, "They suggest that the state could be more efficient in managing education without federal regulations. However, there is little indication, especially in the previous 4-years, that the state can better manage additional funds."
Bowman points to the State's Achievement School District and ESSER Fund distribution as prime examples.
"Tennessee public schools received billions of dollars in federal aid during COVID-19, and many of those dollars were unspent according to the Beacon Center of Tennessee." The PET executive director added, “Tennessee is a reimbursement state, meaning that we must first spend local operating funds before we draw down a reimbursement from the state. This requires significant documentation and reporting, and there is a lag between when funds are encumbered, spent, or reimbursed.”
Senator Yarbro acknowledges that argument, "In the old days when we did things the so-called “Tennessee way” without interventions from the federal government, we just didn’t meaningfully educate most students with disabilities or come close to adequately funding the education of poor children." Yarbro told The Star, "I don’t think we really want to go back to that."
He proposes a different approach, "When it comes to schools, we could study how to make bolder, more strategic, and more effective investments for months without stumbling upon the misguided notion of eliminating 10% of our education budget."
Considered as a whole, the preceding comments provide fodder for a deeper conversation on who is impacting Tennessee Education policy, and how. if we have the courage to have it.
If we have a conversation about the acceptance of Federal money, it's a natural progression to discuss what role non-profits are playing in formulating education policy.
If the TDOE is allowing SCORE to provide funding for a designated department position, what influence are they being granted in return?
If Chiefs for Change and ExcelinEd are allowed to provide services to the Tennessee Commissioner of Education sans a scope of work or contract, what's that ultimately costing us?
One positive outcome of a conversation about the role of Federal money in Tennessee would be the opening of the door to a conversation about the role of foundations in Tennessee.
Been my experience that if you let others voice their concerns, they are more open to hearing yours. The role of private entities in crafting education policy should concern all of us.
As for the just-named Joint Working Group, a total of ten state lawmakers – four senators and six representatives – will make up the panel.
In addition to Moody and Lundberg as co-chairs, House members Representatives Ronnie Glynn (D-Clarksville), Timothy Hill (R-Blountville), John Ragan (R-Oak Ridge), and William Slater (R-Gallatin) were appointed. Senate members include Senators Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis), Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald), Bill Powers (R-Clarksville), and Dawn White (R-Murfreesboro).
The charter for the Joint Working Group outlines four areas of focus:
Identify the amount of federal funding the state, districts, and schools receive and the laws associated with accepting such funds;
Examine how the state, districts, and schools use or intend to use the funding, and whether there are conditions or requirements for accepting such funds;
Report on the feasibility of the state rejecting federal education funding;
Recommend a strategy on how to reject certain federal funding or how to eliminate unwanted restrictions placed on the state due to receiving the funding.
Group members are expected to deliver a report to the State General Assembly by January 9th.
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Here we go again, Nashville's academic magnet schools are back in the crosshairs of MNPS school board members. Specifically Hume-Fogg High School.
The Metro Nashville Public School (MNPS) Board this week considered changing eligibility rules for admission to its two highly successful academic magnet schools – Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School and Hume-Fogg Academic High School. If adopted, all prospective students would be subject to a lottery system for admission.
The proposed rule change would not go into effect until the 2024 – 2025 school year, but if adopted, would sever established pathways for entry into MLK and Home-Fogg. Currently, Meigs Middle School and John Early Middle School serve as pathway schools to Hume-Fogg, while Head Middle School and Rose Park Middle School serve as pathways to MLK.
Ironically, the two high schools under discussion are among the most successful in the country. Hume-Fogg was recently included in US News & World Report’s top 100 public high schools in the country. MLK came in at #219 on the list, containing nearly 18,000 traditional, magnet, charter, and STEM schools.
In a district that arguably struggles with academic achievement, it might behoove us to build up instead of dismantling two successful schools. But that's not where our focus typically lies.
Board member Emily Masters told the board, “What I’m trying to do now, with the board we have, that clearly has an equity focus, is for us to take a crack at providing a directive through policy that we are no longer ok with these academic magnets not being representative of the diversity of our city as a whole.”
She shared statistics that supported her position:
22 percent of the district’s Asian high school students go to either MLK or Hume-Fogg
17 percent of the district’s white high school students go to either MLK or Hume-Fogg
0.06 percent of the district’s Black high school students go to either MLK or Hume-Fogg
0.02 percent of the district’s Hispanic or Latino high school students go to either MLK or Hume-Fogg
Ironically, the pursuit of diversity doesn't take the same priority when discussing MNPS schools that equally suffer from a lack of diversity.
Pearl Cohn High School is over 90% black. Maplewood High School is 92% Black and 6% Hispanic. If having our schools be representative of Nashville - why no discussion?
Pearl-Cohn isn't an outlier either. I could go through data and find an additional 2 dozen schools that suffer from the same lack of diversity.
But let's dig a little deeper into Hume-Fogg's enrollment data.
For the record, Hume-Fogg is 60% white, 20% Black, 11% Asian, and 9% Hispanic.
The City of Nashville is 60.5% white, 27.2% Black, 3.6% Asian, and 10% Hispanic.
Meigs Middle School, the pathway for Hume-Fogg, has similar demographics.
So what's really going on? Should our schools not reflect our city?
A bigger concern for me is what it takes to gain entry to the city's magnet schools.
Under the current rules, students who wish to attend one of Nashville’s academic magnets must meet the following requirements:
80 GPA or higher (Quarter 3, Quarter 4, and Quarter 1)
No missing or failing grades
Met or exceeded expectations on TCAP (previously labeled On Track or Mastered)
State or national stanine of 14 or higher
Students who wish to enroll in Meigs Middle School must meet the same requirements. Parents can enroll their children in the other pathways schools without meeting any academic requirements.
That's an awful low bar and I'd argue that it should be the expectation for all students. You wouldn't build a high-achieving football team with similar qualifications, so why try to do so with academics?
I'd argue that the pathways serve to prepare students for the rigor of an academic magnet school. Now if the academic magnet school doesn't require increased rigor, that's another conversation.
This year, 477 students applied to attend Hume-Fogg HS. Of the students admitted, 139 came from a pathway school, and 135 came from a school outside the established pathway. One hundred seventeen students were waitlisted.
Meigs Middle School received 455 applicants, with 243 students selected. The number of applicants was higher than last year but significantly lower than in previous years. The middle school waitlisted 185 students.
MLK had 229 applicants for its 7th-grade class, and 229 applied for 9th-grade. Of those applicants, 212 came from an established pathway, and 40 came from outside the pathway schools. Seventy-five students were wait-listed.
Neither school had the highest number of students waitlisted. Overton High School, a zoned school, had 142 students wait-listed. Lead Academy, a Nashville charter school, had 148 students wait-listed.
We need to be sure that in having this discussion that in this case we are talking about high-achieving students, as opposed to gifted students. That's an important distinction. In some cases, they are one and the same, but in this case, the school is tailored more toward the high-achieving as opposed to the gifted.
If you want more diversity reflected in enrollment, maybe an emphasis on achievement versus growth should be instilled in elementary schools. But that's a different argument for a different day.
No matter how I look at this, I fail to see a need for this proposed amendment.
Despite protestations from the amendment's author, all I see is a continued attempt to dismantle one of MNPS's most successful programs. I suspect that if Hume-Fogg changed its name to Ibram X. Kendi High School, it'd likely satisfy some of its loudest critics.
I say that with my tongue, partially planted in my cheek.
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Time to rattle the cup a little bit before I head out the door.
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