The state Department of Education is withholding $3.4 million in funding from the public school system in Nashville over a rejected charter school. The Metro Nashville school board last week defied an order by the state Board of Education to approve the application from Phoenix-based Great Hearts Academies.
Members of the city's school board said they were concerned the charter school planned to draw from affluent white families, rather than to bring in students from other parts of the city to create a more diverse student body.
Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman said in a release that the department had "no choice" but to strip the funding from Nashville schools because of the refusal to follow state law giving ultimate authority on charter school applications to the state panel.
