We reprise this post from February 26, 2006, as Memphians get ready to vote (yes, there will be a vote) on consolidating our dual, and dueling, school districts into a single district with one vision for every student in Shelby County:
As we pointed out last week, the rhetoric of Shelby County Schools officials often bears little resemblance to reality, whether the subject is growth, consolidation and academic achievement.
It’s a prime example of how if political rhetoric is loud and persistent enough, it often becomes reality. Frequently, no one, including the news media, bothers to determine the facts behind the rhetoric. While it is a political cliché that perception is reality, unfortunately, in the case of Shelby County Schools, perceptions drive decisions that increase the debt of Shelby County Government and continue questionable educational policies.
As we pointed out last week, the number of county students peaked in 1999 with 48,770 students. In fact, over a 10-year period, the enrollment of Shelby County Schools fell by 1.23 percent. In other words, county school enrollment is largely flat. Shelby County Schools’ fifth attendance period report puts enrollment now at 46,212.
Despite this, since 1999, Shelby County Schools has built 10 new schools and are lobbying for the money for even more. Already, it now has the Southeast Shelby high school and the Schnucks school under way.
Fast Forward
There are a number of facts that will keep the county schools’ enrollment from growing as county school officials suggest. There are demographic trends like the aging of the Germantown population, movement of families outside of Shelby County, and in keeping with the agreements entered as part of the State Chapter 1101 process, county schools will ultimately only be those located within the various towns’ limits.
By 2015, enrollment will be about 35,000 and continue to decline to about 30,000 by 2020.
The impact on the ADA (Average Daily Attendance) funding formula will be profound. Now, Memphis City Schools has 73 percent of all public school students and Shelby County Schools has 27 percent. Therefore, funding for the two schools districts are split on the basis of their percentage of the total number of students.
By 2020, the breakdown will be about 82 percent city and 18 percent county. This means that if the present ADA formula is still in place, by 2020, $10 million needed for county schools will cost taxpayers $50 million, because city schools must get $40 million (because Memphis City Schools will have four times more students).
Time for Something New
It is in this context that we predict that suggestions about school consolidation will become more and more seriously considered. While the idea triggers outrage from Shelby County Schools, it is hard to ignore the fact that every urban school district in Tennessee is now consolidated, except for Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools.
Among the many complaints leveled by county school officials, a favorite is that consolidation is more expensive. That’s not what a comparison of operating expenses for Tennessee urban counties shows.
In fact, it’s the unconsolidated school districts that have the largest increases in operating expenses over a 10-year period – 91.2 percent for Shelby County Schools and 94.7 percent for Memphis City Schools.
Meanwhile, increases for the consolidated urban districts are:
• Davidson County (Nashville) – 73.5 percent
• Hamilton County (Chattanooga) – 60.8 percent
• Knox County (Knoxville) – 64.9 percent
• Madison County (Jackson) – 50.2 percent
Rank Rankings
Roughly a year ago, Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton convened a task force to look into school consolidation, but it was essentially highjacked by county school interests, spending the intervening months writing a report on the intricacies of school funding instead of accomplishing something substantive. Statistics and experience indicate that consolidation is a policy option that now deserves serious study and consideration. Hopefully, the task force will now lead this process.
Also, a gap between rhetoric and reality is seen when county school officials talk about the performance of their schools. Repeatedly, county schools are held up as superior and high-performing. However, this conclusion is often reached as a result of a comparison of performance standards with Memphis City Schools.
Of course, the more pertinent – not to mention, fair – comparison would be for Shelby County Schools to compare itself with other suburban school districts characterized by two-parent, highly educated, higher income families. Lists of the best public schools in the U.S. regularly include schools from districts with the same profile as Shelby County Schools, but these lists never include a school from Shelby County Schools.
For example, just last week, the list of the top 1,000 U.S. schools was released, and they include schools from suburban districts outside Atlanta, Miami, Washington DC, Charlotte, and dozens of other major cities. But there’s not one school in the Shelby County School District among the 1,000 schools.
Wake Up
In Tennessee, there is the school in Brentwood (#339), in Oak Ridge (#360), in Franklin (#645) and Hillsboro School in Nashville (#812).
Shelby County has only one school. It’s in Memphis City Schools – White Station High, #621. In other words, in the school district with the highest expectations and greatest claims for student achievement, there is no school on the list. (Interestingly, the consolidated Nashville district has several.)
But the list of 1,000 schools should not just be disturbing for Shelby County Schools. It should be a wake-up call for state government, too.
Hopefully, state education officials will not hold up five Tennessee schools among the 1,000 as indicators of successful educational policies. That’s because Florida has 20 schools in the top 100; North Carolina has 10 in the top 100; Texas has seven; and the #1 school in the U.S. is in Alabama.
Hopefully, someone in the Tennessee Department of Education will see these rankings for what they are — a challenge to business as usual. If other Southern states can create educational systems that inspire high-achieving schools, surely Tennessee can do the same.
And as state educational officials begin their deliberations, here’s hoping they ask Shelby County Schools to join in.
I did not even read your post. My question is, as a Progressive why do you want to quit so bad? We have an opportunity right now, without going with our tail between our legs to fix a school system. Why do we need the county – of all people you are the biggest hypocrit of them all. You know the county isn’t that smart, you know their leadership isn’t anything special. Yet you want to go throw our kids on their doorstep and hope something positive happens.
The best idea you can come up with is quit. Thank god none of our civil rights leaders took the same approach.
We have a billion dollars and total control of leadership, we can enact whatever education reform we want but yeah your right. Let’s quit, that is going to help the kids. This is the same mentality that is wrong with so many men in society, when the going gets tough they walk away instead of standing up, being a man and fixing a problem.
It is very simple Progressive-
This is about maintaining viable financial support for all schools within Shelby County. Regardless of the number of districts you divide the city schools into, you will still be limited to the same tax base to fund these programs. There is a very real and legitimate concern that district A cannot be taxed in order to support district B if they are isolated as such. There would be legal challenges to such financing if a special district, or a multi district scenario were to be pursued. The so called billion dollars is not a guarantee if a special school district is created for county schools. It almost guarantees legal action that will challenge taxation within the special school district to support schools outside said district. This is not giving up or quitting as you would suggest, instead it is admitting that the system is so inherently flawed that it must be completely rebuilt.
Your view that civil rights leaders would not look kindly upon such an action actually completely ignores the actual events of history. They too called for the existing system of the day- segregation and legally entrenched ethnic bias- to be dissolved in order to achieve equality. They called for the two societies of the day- caucasian and black- to be consolidated into a single system that provided representation and services equally to all citizens.