Governor Bill Lee announces new charter school partnership with private Christian college

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — Governor Bill Lee has announced Tennessee will soon partner with Hillsdale College, a private Christian college in Michigan.

Hillsdale has a branch of charter schools the governor hopes to expand here in Tennessee.

“I believe their efforts are a good fit for Tennessee, and we are formalizing a partnership with Hillsdale to expand their approach to civics education and K-12 education,” Governor Lee said in his state of the state address Monday.

Some critics question why Tennessee is partnering with an out of state institution and are concerned about a religious school overseeing public charter schools.

“Who sent him to Michigan to find out how to treat patriotism, do we not have patriots in Tennessee?” State Rep. Gloria Johnson said. “What is their curriculum, we know it’s an extremely religious school It’s very concerning to me that we know little about this.”

FOX 17 News brought these concerns to Gov. Lee.

Jackie DelPilar: "We’ve heard concerns about partnership with a college out of state, there’s concerns about public money going to an institution that’s religious, what is your response to that?"

Gov. Lee: “Our state has had engagement with and desires to create the best public schools in the country, and that includes charter schools, and Hillsdale, that specific partnership is about engaging Hillsdale and public classical secular education. High quality charter schools are an important part of the equation in the public schools’ system and we welcome charter operators from around the country to improve the public school system in our state.”

The president of Hillsdale is heard in an audio recording from September, saying Gov. Lee asked whether the college could bring bring 100 of these charter schools to Tennessee. They settled for 50.

“The governor of Tennessee has talked me into a commitment to start 50 charter schools in Tennessee by his sell-by date,” Dr. Larry Arnn said.

But the governor didn’t corroborate that story for FOX 17 News.

Jackie DelPilar: "The president of Hillsdale was heard on tape saying you asked for 100 charter schools, then 50, how many schools are you hoping to bring through this program?"

“That will be up to Hillsdale, just like any charter school operator in our state that operates public charters, they make the decisions as to how many schools they like to have in a state,” he said.

Hillsdale College has about 25 charter schools across the country right now.

Their website shows one school in the Chattanooga area is currently using their curriculum.

And they hope to open another school in Williamson County in a few years.

The governor’s office says more information about this partnership will be shared in the coming weeks.

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