NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee's Achievement School District, the agency charged with turning around Tennessee's lowest performing schools, wants to start recruiting students.

It would be a big change for the district, which was formed in 2010 with grant money from the federal Race to the Top program and charged with turning around Tennessee's lowest performing schools without bringing in new students.

ASD superintendent Chris Barbic told WPLN-FM (http://bit.ly/16lAgWG) that he's had to turn away parents interested in sending their children to achievement schools.

The proposal seeks to allow ASD schools with extra capacity recruit up to 25 percent of its population. Recruited students would still have to be low-income or low-performing.

Charter organizations have been asking for the flexibility to recruit for the schools in part because they are worried about enrollment numbers, which are a major factor in state funding.

Metro Nashville Schools board member Will Pinkston said he opposes the proposal.

"It's wrong and it's not what was intended," Pinkston said. "It was never supposed to be this unabated charter authorizer."

ASD officials said the proposal seeks to satisfy demand, and Barbic says the interest is a vote of confidence in the state-run district that is mostly operated by charter organizations.

"If you've got families who are choosing to send their kids to a school that's on the priority list, I mean, what better proxy for the fact that folks in the community feel like that school is on the right track," Barbic said.