http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/news.php?viewStory=59131
Currently, Tennessee's six-year-old charter school law has one of the most restrictive enrollment provisions in the nation, allowing charter schools only to draw their enrollment from failing schools or students considered to be failing. Sen. Jamie Woodson (R), the chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, is pushing legislation that would broaden the state's current law on charter school eligibility to allow charter schools to fill some slots with any student who participates in the federal free or reduced-price lunch program. The bill has met resistance from some legislators and the teacher's union. Jerry Winters, a lobbyist for the Tennessee Education Association, said the bill would "change the focus of the original law" off of low-performing schools and students and onto opening enrollment to possibly a "huge number of students" classified as low-income or "at risk." Estimates are that passing the bill as is would fill just 51 spots that are currently available with low-income students. Those 51 spots would all be at Nashville's Smithson-Craighead Academy, the only charter school in the state not currently at full capacity. "It's a very modest proposal," said Matt Throckmorton of the Tennessee Charter Schools Association.
Source: Nashville City Paper
Date: 03/13/2008
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