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The president of Michigan’s Hillsdale College was riding high earlier this year when he announced plans to launch 50 charter schools in Tennessee after Gov. Bill Lee originally asked for 100.
Six months later, that relationship has cooled after Hillsdale’s Larry Arnn made disparaging comments about educators, telling an audience including Lee that teachers “are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges.”
The comments inspired outrage among lawmakers, teachers and other public school advocates already skeptical of the plans. Now the Republican governor — long known as a charter school and voucher advocate — has distanced himself from Arnn, leaving the fate of charters connected to the small, conservative college in doubt.
Since Arnn’s comments, three Hillsdale-affiliated charter school applications in Tennessee have been rejected by school boards in Jackson-Madison, Clarksville-Montgomery and Rutherford counties. A spokesperson for Hillsdale College declined to comment on the rejected applications and did not respond to a request to interview Arnn.
It’s unknown when or if the additional 47 charter schools promised will ever materialize. No new legislation has been filed or formal steps taken by the GOP-controlled legislature to oust Hillsdale, but the next legislative session doesn’t start until January.
Things could hardly be more different from when Lee touted Hillsdale-affiliated charters in a speech to the legislature early this year — an unusual shoutout for the private college. Hillsdale, Lee said in announcing a civics education partnership with the school, “has been the standard bearer in quality curriculum and the responsibility of preserving American liberty.”
Arnn had recently spearheaded the “1776 Curriculum,” which was inspired by former President Donald Trump’s short-lived “1776 Commission,” as a direct response to The New York Times’ “1619 Project” focusing on America’s history of slavery.
