Let the pandering begin.

Shelby County Schools Board Chairman David Pickler has now officially begun his campaign, and as reliably as the Mississippi River flooding each year, his brand of divisive “we versus they” politics is already in full display.

Mr. Pickler has an incredible capacity to summon up some bogey man to spread his message of fear and bias.  Unsurprisingly, this year, he’s turned to his old reliable: consolidation of Memphis and Shelby County Governments.

Never mind that the Metro Charter Commission has already taken schools off the table.  Never mind that the proposed charter will only allow merger of the city and county school districts by their two boards.  Never mind that he’s opposed consolidation because he said it would also consolidate schools.

Don’t Confuse Me With the Facts

He has often been proven wrong, but the facts have rarely been an obstacle to his opinions.  Rather than hailing the Charter Commission’s decision as the right thing to do does not achieve his campaign goals, so he plows on with a campaign of division and fear, replete with code words for the enemy, African-Americans in Memphis.

To this end, he even summoned up the ghost of Willie Herenton to run shivers up the spines of the 50  true believers attending his campaign kick-off.

“There are a lot of powerful forces in this community that would like Shelby County school board not to be as strong – not to be as focused – not be as effective,” he intoned.  Exactly who these powerful forces are and why they aren’t powerful enough to put consolidated schools in a new charter is information only known by Mr. Pickler.

One Right Call

He whips up apprehensions by taking shots at the leadership in City Hall and the mistakes of city government.  As we’ve said before, this threadbare theme is contradicted by the facts since City of Memphis actually delivers its services at half the per capita rate of Germantown.

But Mr. Pickler is right about one thing.  The county school board has been effective – politically effective.   Anyone familiar with Shelby County Schools is well-aware that who you know can be more important than what you know.  Only board member Diane George seems to be playing it straight down the middle.

One board member is lining up a job at the Central Office, another board member’s son works there already, one board member’s daughter is a principal, one board member gerrymandered a high school zone to take care of a state legislator and as for Mr. Pickler himself, it’s hard to know where to start.

Big Brother Knows Best

Political influence is the coin of the realm at Shelby County Schools, and so much emphasis seems to be placed on keeping an all-white board for a 40% minority district.  Over the years, decisions blatantly based on race have not only embarrassed the board but our whole community.

The refusal to give parents meaningful input into educational decisions – much less speak for more than a couple of minutes at board meetings – undermines all of Mr. Pickler’s campaign rhetoric about his respect for parents.  His imperious nature frequently leads to a tendency to put parents in their place and to position himself as the one who knows best what should be done to educate their children.

Meanwhile, his nose for finding political advantage in the most innocuous issue sniffs out things like calling a holiday Washington’s Birthday instead of Presidents’ Day, because he didn’t like the latest occupant of the Oval Office.

Big Foot

Ignoring the advice of the Tennessee’s Attorney General, he pushed for drug tests of athletes, band members, cheerleaders, and others in extracurricular activities.  Perhaps, we’re strict constructionists, but we think the Mr. Pickler too often wants to step into our places as parents.  The fact that, according to the Academy of Pediatrics, drug testing poses significant risks that outweigh any limited benefits and undermines school-child and school-family relationships did nothing to deter him.

It’s no surprise that Mr. Pickler has been the source of the soured relationship between Shelby County Schools and their funding body, the Shelby County Board of Commissioners.  In a body where consensus is rarely reached, there is a strong consensus about Mr. Pickler and it’s not good.  It’s been yet another time when he put his personal political ambitions ahead of what’s best for the district, because if the district does in fact need more funding (as he has frequently said), it would stand to reason that a positive, respectful working relationship could accrue to the district’s benefit.

Apparently, Mr. Pickler is more intent on getting taxing authority for the county district as a misguided bill in Nashville would do.  The idea of yet another legislative body imposing taxes should be enough to terrorize any truly conservative constituency, particularly with the current board rubber stamping tax increases.  More to the point, under the heading of the law of unintended consequences, passage of the county district’s legislative could push over some dominoes that would in time be devastating to the county schools and the county towns. 

Hope Springs Eternal

Hopefully, there is a new day coming for the Shelby County Schools Board.  The entrenched interests of the district and the lack of transparency are vestiges of a past age.  If Memphis City Schools Board exhibited this kind of behavior, the news media would be all over its members, and it’s time for the same level of scrutiny for all public agencies including the county school board.

In an age when public agencies talk a good game about transparency, the only thing transparent in Shelby County Schools is the way that the interests of the kids are always secondary to using them for personal political gain.