Details on ASD's Rigged Takeover of Memphis Schools

from the Commercial Appeal:

Less than 1.5 percentage points — That's the margin by which the Hillcrest High School Neighborhood Advisory Council gave charter network Green Dot Public Schools approval to take over their school next year under the state-run Achievement School District.

Less than half of one percentage point — That's the margin by which the charter could have failed had the ASD not deleted sections of one of the six evaluations, citing a lack of concrete evidence to justify low scores.

Two out of six — That's how many of the Hillcrest neighborhood council members gave Green Dot at least a 50 percent score, the threshold needed for the charter network to take over.

One out of four — the lowest possible score a Neighborhood Council member could give the charter operators on each section of the evaluation. There was no option to give zero points.

The ASD released the councils' original evaluations to The Commercial Appeal Monday, after several NAC members raised questions about whether the decision was ever truly in their hands.

This year's ASD charter matching process, which will result in four schools converting to charters next year, was billed as a step up from previous years in both transparency and community involvement. The power would rest with the Neighborhood Advisory Councils, with at least half the members being parents, who would have the chance to interview the charter operators, tour existing schools in the ASD under that charter network and review and grade each charter's application.

While all of that happened, several NAC members in a news conference Monday referred to the process as "a scam" and said it was designed just to look like the community had a say. . . .