Rutherford County’s first charter school isn’t all it is cracked up to be. After researching Rutherford Collegiate Prep, it was clear there are major issues. Parents should do their research. Rutherford Collegiate Prep plans to open as the county’s first charter school. Some good questions for those responsible for approving these schools would be: Have they done their research? Did they read the applications? Do they have any clue in regard to the background of the entities governing these charter schools and their partnerships?

Rutherford Collegiate Prep will be governed by ReThink Forward, which is partnering with Noble Education Initiative. The founder and CEO of Noble Education is Sherry Hage. Her husband, Jonathan Hage, is the founder and CEO of Charter Schools USA. According to littlesis.org, “Jonathan Hage is also the President of numerous LLCs in the state of Florida that provide services to the charter schools. These LLCs provide a wide range of services; everything from custodial work to social emotional curriculum.”

Further, regarding social emotional learning, Jonathan Hage stated, “I am a firm believer that SEL leads to improved academic performance. We Use Altitude Education USA, LLC featuring Nick Vujicic at Charter Schools USA.”

I have written and spoken extensively on why parents should not allow their children to be subjected to SEL.

When I read through the approved application for Rutherford Collegiate Prep, it was horrifying to see, very clearly stated, that SEL will be embedded in the curriculum.

SEL Competencies Will be Embedded Within Each Unit Map, according to the Tennessee charter school application filed on behalf of Rutherford Collegiate Prep. Embedded Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Competencies are intended to build engagement while addressing student needs that impact behavior and academics.

The school will emphasize self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making, the application goes on to state.

The basic learning environment is classroom-based. The curriculum is the general education curriculum nested within the CASEL SEL 5-component frame.

The sole purpose of SEL is to shape a child’s thoughts, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. It appears to me that the entire charter school is nothing more than a social experiment. Parents, beware!

Rutherford Collegiate Prep is a public charter school, which means Rutherford County tax dollars will be funding this school. How much taxpayer money will be funneled back to the Hage family via their LLCs? Charter schools are a lucrative business, so much so that Hage at one point had a yacht named Fishin’ 4 Schools as well as an LLC under the same name. Ironically, the Hage family sent all of their children to private schools, not the public charter schools that they ran.

“Charter Schools USA makes millions by managing schools, but tens of millions building and renting their buildings,” according to a report from WTSP in Tampa Bay. “Because the facilities are used as schools, there are no property taxes. Because the schools are technically public, the bonds to pay them are tax-exempt. Yet the schools are expected to pay a much higher interest rate on their leases.”

So how do entities like Charter Schools USA make their money?

“The real profits, however, are not in the operation of the charter school, but in the real estate development. After receiving a variety of grants, loans and tax credits for building a charter school, the for-profit chain charges ever escalating rents and leases to the school district, paid by taxpayer education dollars,” La Gaceta reported. “The for-profit then reaps the profits when the building is sold in a few years. Meanwhile, the properties with high, nontaxable values based on claimed ‘commercial’ revenue streams from public taxpayer dollars are leveraged to borrow additional funds to build more school buildings.”

Charter schools are lucrative business deals run by appointed boards giving the taxpayers no recourse. It is more than concerning that our elected officials are either too lazy to do their research when it comes to these initiatives or they are complicit. Either way, you should be asking your representatives hard questions. Are they reading the charter applications? Ask your school board members if they read through the entire charter application and if they understand what is going to be taught, what assessments the children are going to be given, and what is being done with the data. Do you really want your tax dollars being handed over to another avenue of education that is subjecting students to the same agenda as traditional public schools?

Who are our representatives really representing?