Memphis City Schools Votes Itself Out of Business
Daniel Kiel on Tuesday, January 4, 2011 at 4:04PM Strange things are afoot in Memphis, Tennessee. Some very brief background – in Memphis and Shelby County, we have both a city district (approx.. 100,000 students) and a suburban county district (approx. 45,000 students).
Just before the holidays, the city district voluntarily voted to surrender its charter, effectively dissolving the district. Since the county is the entity tasked with educating citizens, the ultimate result of this is likely to be the absorption of the city’s 100,000 students into a very large county-wide mega district. Before anything becomes official, a city referendum putting the question in the hands of the voters must pass. That is likely to happen in February, although there is much legal wrangling about the procedure and status of that vote.
This is a fascinating (and highly contentious) time with all sorts of undercurrents of race, history, and of course, politics. But I’m wondering if y’all have heard of anything of this sort happening elsewhere? On this type of scale? With a huge school system basically voting itself out of business? I would love to hear your thoughts (and I’m happy to fill in details for those who are interested).
Reader Comments (12)
I haven't heard of such on this scale. I'd love to hear/read some the background leading up to this.
Amazing. Just out of the blue? I hadn't heard anything about this leading up to it.
Why does the county feel like it has responsibility? Is there something in the Tennessee Constitution mandating that each county shall provide education? I'm guessing the Constitution places that burden on the state, so what statute is in place that mandates that the county take these students? Thus, (assuming Shelby County Schools are not a big fan of this), could there be a Constitutional-based lawsuit by Shelby County against the state for the state to instead provide for these students (i.e. take over or form a new charter).
What is the possibility of this causing a City/County split, like what happened in Saint Louis. http://goo.gl/DndYL -- If this caused enough of a political firestorm, are there still laws on the books in Tennessee permitting residents of a county to vote to split the county? Thus, a part of Shelby County could vote to break off from the rest of it (effectively Memphis City Limits).
Anyway, probably all just academic issues as some political compromise might be reached, but it does set off a bunch of new questions.
I would love to hear more about this situation. I don't know of any such types of actions in Indiana - since the days of consolidation that swept the state in the 70s and I was too young to remember or know what that process looked like. Indiana did commission a report on reducing total government that called for the consolidation of the 50 smallest districts in the state with larger adjacent districts. That report is 5 or 6 years old and no action has been taken down that line of thinking - of course a new legislative session starts today and no one knows what might come from this group. I will be watching closely this Memphis case – pretty interesting.
I have a few questions, Daniel:
1. Is Shelby County racially mixed as a whole? In other words, is this consolidation directed at forging more racial integration, or is it a move to consilidate expenditures? Or is it something else?
2. Does Memphis have a race-based student assignment plan presently? If not, do you think that is the plan once the consolidation happens?
3. Considering the power of suburban constituencies in state politics (which is very substantial), what is to stop those constituencies from demanding that the state simply legislatively establish a new "county" containing only the city of Memphis?
Very interesting development, and I have only seen it go the other way (city annexing county--e.g., Jacksonville, FL), so I will be interested to see how this turns out.
First, here is some background as to how this unfolded and then I’ll address some specific questions below.
As I mentioned in the original post, the city and county districts have operated separately for as long as anyone can remember. The city district (100,000 students) is nearly all African American and free/reduced lunch students, has some outstanding schools and students, but on the whole does not fare very well using the state’s accountability standards. The county district (45,000) is far more racially diverse (approximately 55% white, 36% African American) and performs better under the state standards. In addition to separate schools, the city and county operate separate governments. The largest impediment to consolidating the government is a concern that doing so would ultimately lead to the consolidation of schools. In fact, a vote on city-county government consolidation failed just this past November.
Also in November, the Republican majority was increased in the Tennessee state legislature which made it more likely that legislation perpetually pursued by the county school system would pass. For many years, the leaders of the county school system have been seeking legislation that would ultimately allow them to freeze their borders to prohibit additional annexation by the city school system which led to instability in the county system. In addition, that legislation would likely have given taxing authority to the county schools (though they deny that is what they were after). Such taxing authority would threaten the funding stream for the city schools.
Currently, the city schools are funded by both the city and county governments, with the majority of funds coming from the county. If the county school district had received taxing authority (the taxes going to pay only for county schools and not city schools), then the county government would be able to lower its taxes, which could have substantially reduced its ability to fund the city schools. Couple that with the fact that the city government actually tried to stop funding the city schools last year, saying it was exclusively the county’s obligation (a whole separate issue with a lawsuit of its own), and the city district concluded that if something was not done, it was going to be left with the responsibility to educate 100,000 students without any money to do it. It is a huge mess.
To address some of the questions in comments….
- although the Tennessee constitution puts the responsibility for education on the legislature, state statutes (TCA 49-1-102 if you’re interested) pass that responsibility on to the county government; that is where the county responsibility comes from. Justin- I don’t think there is any basis for a suit saying it is the state’s responsibility, but legislators are considering introducing legislation that would essentially result in a state takeover of the district. The legislative session doesn’t open for another week, though.
- as for creating an new county by splitting Shelby County (where Memphis sits) into two, I have no idea whether they’ve thought of this, but I suspect that everything is on the table for those working to prevent this. At the moment, the quest seems to be to quickly pass legislation that will freeze the boundaries before the charter surrender becomes official. It is all moving very fast though.
- in response to Scott’s questions…clearly, there is a racial element here but the move was precipitated by financing sustainability concerns. Both the city and county districts have been declared unitary and neither uses race-conscious student assignment any longer. I do not believe that a new district would begin doing so as it would make an already combustible situation even more so. I suspect that the school-by-school racial makeup will be largely unaffected aside from a few schools near the current border between the districts. I’m also of the opinion that the day-to-day operation of the schools will not be all that different either, though there are obviously a multitude of things to consider when combining two large organizations that operate with different procedures, requirements, textbooks, etc.
Stay tuned.
I am totally obsessed with this situation. I have started reading the Memphis newspaper daily to keep up with what is happening. It just gets more and more interesting. Today there will be a press conference and "rally" by those that support the surrender of the charter. In the invitation for the event a MCS Board Memeber wrote:
Press Conference: Supporters of School Unity
11:00 a.m. -2 p.m.
Shelby County Commission building
Join the supporters of school unity and a new day for public education in Memphis/Shelby County! It's time we speak louder than the opposition and defenders of separatism!
This seems to be dripping with race and class issues. That last statement is really interesting. Is there a sense in Memphis that the County Schools are seeking to protect their position along lines of race and class with the special district distinction? I can't wait to see what happens next.
I can't imagine what the Board or District leaders are thinking in Shelby County with the possibility of instantly trippling in size....
The blacks have run the city schools into the grounds. (Remember it was a power grab for them to take control in the first place and has since been used to line the pockets of cronies and members). Now it's clear they've failed to run it properly but have implemented so many absurd entitlement programs that the system will require huge institutional changes...none of which the board will do themselves, but they're happy to let the county do it (while crying racism the whole way through). It's an absolute joke. The black board has failed the black students. There's nothing racists about it, just a fact. Now everyone who moved out of the city to avoid the tentacles of the corrupt black establishment (read about King Willie) are getting thrust back into it.
While I detest the content posted in the previous comment, I am going to leave it up as it is an opinion that is probably part of the equation in Memphis currently and I hope others respond to this type of thinking - which might be part of what is responsible for the current situation.
@Memphian - for future reference, if you are referring to a limited number of individuals on the school board, who happen to be black and with an African-American centered agenda in your opinion, please refer only to them on this blog. You can disagree or criticize certain individuals or policies on this blog, but using such broad, insensitive and racially motivated language as "the blacks" is inappropriate and will be deleted in future posts. We welcome your inputs into the conversation, but only if they are civil ... and that previous post was not.
Thank you Justin for asking for more civility in the discussion. I don't know any of the particulars in the Memphis. But I do know that I have seen in newspaper coverage an undertone of racism and/or classism - as is common in urban politics - and straight up acknowledgement of white flight. It has been this economic ability of typically white citizens to "escape" the urban setting that has resulted in a resegregation of many urban areas. This time the segregation has happened as a function of economics and class instead of by law. And we have seen the Supreme Court be ok with this type of existence. I would be curious to hear the opinion of others about IF/WHEN this consolidation occurs will there be a need to balance the student populations for race and class around the entire county.
Chris - Although I would love to see greater diversity within the schools here in Memphis and Shelby County, I do not see that as being a likely outcome from this situation. By way of background, the 2 separate districts have both been declared unitary - Memphis City Schools in the late 1990s, Shelby County Schools just a year or two ago. Thus, there will not be any court-ordered diversity. The geography in the city is such that "natural" desegregation is unlikely as well. So the only opportunity for desegregation would be from a voluntary race-conscious assignment plan (and likely the busing that goes along with it) - that is a complete political non-starter here, probably for both the white and African American communities. There are a lot of potential changes in the schooling in Memphis from this - in the short term at least, the racial makeup of individual schools is not likely to be one of them.
And you are reading the race/class undertones correctly. The parallels to the desegregation fights of the 1960s and 70s are eerie.
Daniel -- In continuing to follow this very interesting turn of events am I correct in my reading about the new bill that seems to be flowing out the of the state legislature. 1. It will allow the vote to occur on March 8th for the citizens of MEMPHIS to vote to dissolve the MCS. 2. If the referendum passes the new bill would require a that a new commission be established for the merger of the two districts to occur starting with the 2013-14 school year. 3. That the small municipalities throughout Shelby Co would have the authority to form their own independent school districts.
This last point is very interesting and seems to also set-up a nice comparison with the events in Wake Co. NC. Where this merger is being sought with potentials for equity throughout the county but with a scapegoat to protect white-flight behaviors. Of course unlike Wake Co Memphis has never had a focus of diversity or equity so I am not sure which leaves the worse taste in my mouth.
Again, thanks for bringing this story to light I have been totally engulfed in what is going on down there.
Not to be insensitive but it is funny to see all of you people who do not live in the Memphis area to comment on race relations like you know something about it. The Memphis city school boards majority black members bring race into this mess every chance they get. Even when a majority black board runs things into the ground they blame it on race. Normal non racist people are getting sick of it and especially get sick of hearing other people defend this type behavior.