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Well done Blount County School Board! Schools in Blount County, Maryville City, and Alcoa City systems are doing very good jobs educating the children of our area. Practices are being used everyday and EVERYONE benefits from them. This is proven by exceptionally high test scores and now SCORE is honoring Maryville City Schools as being one of the top 3 systems in the state for student growth. Public education is working here.

Charter schools have a mediocre history at best. Several research reports show charter schools can have positive impact where school systems are failing - this is obviously not the case here. However, several research reports also show the negative impact charter schools have on public school funding (see any number of US Department of Education reports).

This begs the question, why in the world would Blount County/Maryville City/Alcoa City citizens want their tax dollars diverted away from something that is working (and working well) to something that, at best, is a gamble and at worst statistically unproven?

Public education should not in the business of making a small group happy at the expense of the vast majority. Thank you Blount County School Board for your votes!