NASHVILLE, Tennessee (LifeSiteNews) – Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is pushing back against woke-leftists public education by inviting conservative Hillsdale College to open 50 charter schools in the state.
Hillsdale College to open 50 charter schools in Tennessee with anti-woke curriculum based on 1776 Project https://t.co/ILipbhW7Eb via @MailOnline
— Rep. Keith Ammon (@RepKeithAmmon) April 10, 2022
After consulting with the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, he expressed that he wants “high-quality charter school” operators in the state, and that he wanted Hillsdale “to consider that.”
Lee recently said that “Hillsdale College has been the standard bearer in quality curriculum and in the responsibility of preserving American liberty.”
Currently, Tennessee has over 100 charter schools, most of them serving underprivileged youth in difficult neighborhoods. Charter schools are publicly funded like public schools. However, the organizations that run the charter schools can implement their own curriculums and use the money in ways they see fit.
The New York Times published a critical piece of Hillsdale’s move into charter schooling, calling into question its 1776 Curriculum that portrays America as “an exceptionally good country.”
The curriculum was developed in response to the infamous 1619 project that has been said to advance “certain leftist political agendas, and so has been embraced in schools where ‘progressive’ influence is strong.”
Hillsdale offers a classical education, giving students the opportunity to study the Western literary and philosophical tradition stemming from Antiquity to the present.
The college itself accepts no state or federal funding, which includes no student grants or loans. Critics have said that Hillsdale does this to avoid oversight. However, the college says that it is “a matter of principle” to remain independent in order to educate without government strings attached.
Hillsdale-affiliated charter schools are neither owned nor run by the college, but instead provide training and assistance for associated schools – all for free.
The move to counter leftist orthodoxy in public schooling comes as Americans are making their passionate opinions known about how children should be taught in schools. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently struck a blow to pro-LGBT efforts in his state by passing a Parental Rights in Education Bill that prohibits the discussion of sexual orientation and gender theory from small children.