Dive Brief:

• Tennessee's Cheatham County school board voted 5-0 against the creation of Cumberland Academy Charter School, which would have been one of the first rural charter schools.  
• Education historian Diane Ravtich, who posted an article about the district on her blog, labeled the charter as a TFA school because three of the six individuals attempting to launch it were Teach for America alumni.  
• The splintering of public education funds played a large role in the decision to vote against the academy.  

Dive Insight:

As Ravitch explained in another blog post, "Aside from the financial cost to the community, the charter school will divide community support for the local schools." It looks like the school board wasn't too divided when it made its decision. 

While charter schools are big in urban areas, there are not many of them in rural communities.  In fact, according to the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools, 56% of charter school students came from urban city centers in the 2010-11 school year.