Town mayors and county school officials have now fully reaped what they sowed.
As they enjoy their ever-present victimhood, they seem oblivious to the reasons they now find themselves as part of a new, countywide school district. In last year’s referendum on consolidating city and county governments, they vehemently denounced the pro-consolidation mantra: “Doing Nothing Is Not An Option.”
Well, they did choose “doing nothing” and because of it, they brought their worst nightmare to pass: consolidation of city and county school districts. In the flurry of legal filings in federal court and volleys between officials of the districts and local governments, it’s a twist that’s gone unappreciated.
Who’s the Real Leaders?
Because they were wed to their talking points and their anti-Memphis gospel, they are the creators of the current dilemma. In their kneejerk opposition to government consolidation, the suburban elected officials passed up a charter that would have kept the city and county school systems separate and kept both school boards in place. Ah, irony.
In their haste to defeat anything that smacked of a single city-county government, they squandered their best opportunity to have what they apparently most want for their schools – complete separation from Memphis City Schools. Interestingly, it was city school officials that were open-minded enough, as School Board Commissioners Martavius Jones, that they were willing to be help “push the reset button” to make the government structure here more efficient and accountable.
They don’t get enough credit for showing the kind of leadership that is all too rare these days. They were willing to set aside their personal opinions in order to move our community ahead with a new government that could streamline government and improve local decision-making and taxation. Because of their open-mindedness, the proposed charter included language that continued the city and the county schools systems with the proviso that the structure could only be changed with the joint agreement of both school boards.
It could have been everything that non-Memphis politicos now want, but they were too busy seeing conspiracies and manipulations to consider the idea objectively and calmly. So, they amped up their rhetoric and provided the first local hints of the rigidity that would come to characterize the emerging Tea Party movement.
Be Careful What You Wish For
They did get what they wanted. They killed off the new city-county charter. At the same time, however, they breathed life into the movement to instead force the consolidation of the two school districts.
In the beginning, the “county” officials thought they possessed the power and the control and they believed that Memphis City Schools’ commissioners would never give up their elected offices and support school consolidation. The contempt for the city school board seethed just below the surface along and because of it, the politicians outside Memphis totally misread the tea leaves.
It was that same underlying lack of respect and the overriding sense of superiority that for years led Shelby County Schools Chairman David Pickler to lobby for a special school district with the assumption that there was little that city officials could do about it. Way back when, the ill will that fueled the school referendum vote began with Mr. Pickler constantly sticking his finger in the eye of city school board members by asking the Tennessee Legislature to pass special school district legislature and freeze the boundaries for his district.
It’s highly conceivable that if Mr. Pickler had toned down his rhetoric about a special school district that Shelby County Schools would not find itself where it is today. It was Mr. Pickler that set in motion the first serious conversations about consolidating schools, but Mr. Pickler et al had one more chance to avert what they perceived as disaster.
Blowing It
That was in approving the new city-county government charter, but locked in their anti-Memphis doctrine, it never saw the opportunity for what it was: Their last chance to get what they wanted.
If Shelby County Schools and town mayors like Collierville’s Stanley Joyner have perfected anything, it is their ability to play the victim. During the government consolidation campaign, Mayor Joyner was notable for his leaps of illogic, and because of it, these days, he is left to push for a school district outside Memphis that at least encompasses his city and Germantown.
Just as he and the others did with government consolidation, his kneejerk reaction comes without any serious analysis or facts. It matters little that students in Collierville will go to the same schools, they will have the same teachers, and they will continue to benefit from their socio-economic status. And yet, the mere fact that all schools in Shelby County will have the same board is enough to trump the lack of change that will be seen in his town’s schools.
There’s no willingness to consider that he’s wrong. There’s no willingness to resist playing to the lowest political common denominator. There’s no hesitation to play the fear card.
The Plotting Continues
It’s widely reported in suburban political circles that the mayors and Mr. Pickler and his colleagues have met with Tennessee Majority Leader Mark Norris and they are plotting next steps “to protect our schools.” Chief on the list of possibles for the future is the new Collierville-Germantown school system so coveted by Mayor Joyner and Mr. Pickler. Such a district could conceivably include Bartlett, but it’s going to be hard to go much beyond the largest towns because of the property tax base needed to support a system that will be much more expensive than they are willing to acknowledge.
It remains to be seen if the two-thirds of families outside Memphis who have no children in school will support a significant increase in their property taxes just to build a wall around their schools. The notion by politicos that approval of tax increases for schools is a slam dunk is unchallenged now by the reality of its prospects. For example, Germantown’s population is essentially flat and it is aging. Gone are the days when it was the bastion for suburban families. These days, it’s becoming the preferred location for nursing and assisted living facilities. There’s a real question if its voters will support tax increases that go to a service they do not use, not to mention overcoming the Republican Party’s anathema about raising taxes, a mantra especially beloved in the suburban town.
As the town mayors and some county school board members put together a plan for creating a post-consolidation school district outside Memphis, they probably won’t invite everyone to the dance. Millington, for one, offers too many logistical and social problems and too little revenues.
But all of that lies in the future. What’s interesting to us is that the dilemma that the “county” folks find themselves in is totally of their own making and that’s what makes this fascinating to watch it play out.
Memphis needs to up the game and start charging an additional fee on all non-City accounts to make up for the fair share of the City services and amenities that County folks don’t pay.
The suburban leaders are showing the traditional and chronic resistance to change, the type of attitude that stagnated Memphis in the Loeb and Chandler administrations. They are the last bastion of segregation in Shelby County. And yes folks, it IS about race despite what they want you to believe. By the way, I am white.
They would be better off getting legal assurances that the SCS schools will be able to retain their character and also retain their basic socio economic school population for the forseeable future rather than continue to resist.
Only thing I take issue with in this post, SC, is that I do believe Germantown’s residents will be willing to pony up for its own school system. That’s the gut feeling I get living here, anyway.
I agree with Packrat on his point. The real question for Germantown will be whether it believes it can create a caliber of quality public education not yet found in this region. If the quality can be enhanced to a great enough degree, then some of those currently sending their children to the area’s private schools might be willing to send their children back to- gasp- public schools. Money spent is money spent whether it be in taxes or tuition.
I live in Germantown too and can assure you the residents are willing to pony up, now anyway. I went to the meeting a few months back and was shocked at the residents’ willingness to absorb a completely unforseeable amount of tax increase for this venture. People are 1) worried that the politicans that ran the Memphis board will win the majority of seats on the new board (not an entirely unjustified concern) and 2) are convinced that somehow inner city kids will end up going to Germantown High School (an entirely unjustified concern). How much the schools will cost to buy, other details – they are entirely unconcerned. They will pay anything; many said that it was their chance to send their kid to basically private school without the private school bill. Now we will see when the real amount of tax increase becomes known how excited folks are about it, but they are going to try to put their own school system together, no doubt.
This is Anonymous 9:36. Based upon the 3 comments after mine, City education leaders should mount a campaign as soon as is feasible to 1) put the factual estimates out there as to how much the suburban towns will have to actually pay to have municipal school districts and 2) commit to only minor district changes with the current SCS schools.
As most the posters have pointed out, the towns will form their own school districts. Your naive to think anything other than a court order is going to prevent that.
The other naive comment is that the ‘county’ folks are in a dilemma. If life hasn’t taught you this so far, life in Memphis should have.
You can’t annex yourself into first place.
Is it uncomfortable to say that Germantown, Tennessee is less than 2% black, has a median income of over $116,000 per household and a median age of 44 years? They’re older, they’re white and they’re wealthy, quite obviously. Their interests are narrow. They constitute less than 5% of the population of Shelby County. And yet this is what we see, a self-righteous entitlement approach to separate schools to unabashedly protect themselves from the “other” (rhetoric from their camp isn’t bashful on this subject) that dominates the politics and discourse of our region, holding us in the clutches of 1957.
To respond to “old guy,” you’re precisely the demographic, with a Baby Boomer self-aggrandizing worldview that over-emphasizes your own importance to the world that is reaping what you have sown, but its starting to taste bitter. Over-borrowing, over-oil plundering, and over-looking the majority of society left behind as losers in the turbo-capitalistic game of musical chairs has left a gigantic rift in our nation’s social fabric, and Memphis’ region in particular. Walling off, whether it’s your schools or your houses, is a fantasy as unsustainable as your addiction to SUVs.
This is a blog about progress that often highlights the people and ideas standing in the way. Its time you and your neighbors take a look in the mirror. Gut check yourselves. Stop blaming others, when in fact you’ve already won the game of musical chairs, while the music is coming to an end and the shortcomings and misgivings of the era of the Baby Boomers and what they are reaping are so plain. Everyone is in this city together, physically – if not by choice, then by fact. No one is blameless for the dramatic, unsustainable lack of equality, save those who have truly spent their lives working for the common good, or those too young to have contributed much other than the passive result of inherited ideas. But starting tomorrow, everyone could be working together for the common good and a sustainable future, to set right some of these mistakes. One thing is for certain, Germantown “public” schools is not sustainable progress, it’s a step back in time that threatens the health of our region.
old guy, you can’t wall yourself off into first place either. Nor wall yourself off from the problems of Memphis as a whole. There are only two viable choices, long-term: either work to make the ‘whole’ better, or move away from this area entirely.
Not all of the towns will form their own school districts; some of them don’t have the tax base or the willingness to pay.
Old guy is right in that Germantown etc haven’t placed themselves into a dilemma at all. They have for years wanted to break off and have their own systems. So they have gottten exactly what they wanted – no government consolidation and now the opportunity to form their own school systems, an opportunity they would have achived legislatively whether the Memphis school board did what it did or not.
Old Guy and Anon 9:40-
The follow up question is at what cost? By that I mean the literal financial cost to its citizens.
SCM: You have a pretty intellectual following. Check out what the Education PhD’s say:
Consolidation of Schools and Districts by the National Education Policy Center – 2011
http://nepc.colorado.edu/files/PB-Consol-Howley-Johnson-Petrie.pdf
From the executive summary:
“Research also suggests that impoverished regions in particular often benefit from smaller schools and districts, and they can suffer irreversible damage if consolidation occurs.”
Page 11
“In many places, schools and districts are already too large for fiscal efficiency or educational quality; deconsolidation is more likely than consolidation to achieve substantial efficiencies and yield improved educational outcomes.”
Forget the suburbs. Why are you cheering educational suicide for the current MCS kids?
“an opportunity they would have achived legislatively whether the Memphis school board did what it did or not.:
The only thing they didn’t get was that they couldn’t stop the financial onus for MCS children from shifting to being solely the responsibility of SHelby County, not Memphis. Which is where it should be.
Anon 10:15 and 9:40 here again. First, just because I think old dude made a valid point doesn’t mean I necessarily agree that Germantown should have its own school system. But the fact is this is what they have wanted for quite some time; they are not squriming in the least. No one knows how much this venture will cost, which is why I think folks should be squirming quite frankly. I’m all for small school systems, but I am not for doubling or tripling our taxes to create a school system from scratch before knowing what the consolidated system will look like. But from the meeting I went to, no one in that government or the folks in the seats care how much it will cost; they are scared enough to pull the trigger no matter what. If you could have seen the glint in the Mayor’s eye when she talked about having the chance to put together the best school system in the country, you would know this is a fait accompli, cost be damned.
The wild card is that there will be a federal lawsuit filed against a special district for selected towns, so we’ll see how that turns out.
And if the people outside Memphis want to delude themselves into thinking that they are in the cat bird’s seat and nothing affects them, they should think again. The troubling trends that we discuss and show are not usually about Memphis only. Generally, our statistics are for the region, and regardless of what some of old thinkers in the towns believe, it’s the entire region that’s facing challenges and it’s being shown in the towns by tax increases, lack of growth issues, out-migration, and slow growth of their tax bases.
The non-Memphis part of Shelby County is on the wrong side of a tidal wave that they deny they should help stop.
There will be a time if the burbanites want to wall themselves off from all things black and all things Memphis that they will have to talk about race because there’s no other reason for them to get so worked up over this. I can’t wait for them to again show their true colors.
I think you’re right, anon 12:33, with the proviso that you might get some pushback if the cost is extreme. I do believe most homeowners, and certainly those with public school chidren, would be very willing to pay 25% more in property taxes to gain a muni district.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if the state legislature doesn’t pass some law forcing the new SCS to “give” school property to new muni districts. One thing’s for certain, this thing is highly likely to end up being adjudicated for years.
For the record- as if posts by non-legal names or identifiers can be on the record- I am actually quite open to the idea of smaller districts. Throughout this process I have actually hoped that we might be able to create as many as 5 or 6 school districts across Shelby County whose definition would in no way reflect municipal boundaries. It would enable the ability to fine tune education methods that correspond with that districts demographics as opposed to the single district- single solution approach. It would also allow for successful districts to be more readily identified as independent identities as opposed to being associated with their underlying municipality as happens today. I reference the typical Memphis= bad schools mantra that rears its ugly head on a regular basis. I am of the opinion that one or more successful public school districts that overlap existing sections of the city would help stabilize both property values as well as neighborhoods within said districts.
I realize the counter point is the ability to isolate poverty and its effects by allowing residents outside certain districts to simply ignore those that are caught within the cycle which is certainly a risk of such an approach. It would be a very obvious flaw to such an approach.
Eventually – probably decades from now – the Shelby County Schools (if nothing had changed) would become a system that operated only within the towns because Memphis would have annexed the rest of Shelby County. It would seem that any new district could not take area into its system that is within the Memphis annexation reserve area and that narrows down their territory quite a bit. In that way, it seems likely that the town limits and the districts will be coterminus. But we like your thinking.
“…identities…” I crack myself up! Of course I meant to write “entities”.
I am also assuming that neither Germantown nor any other suburban municipality would be granted the ability to create their own municipal school district. Each district would draw from the same “trough” based on attendance or some such equitable equation. Seeing as inner city districts would be saddled with aging facilities whereas suburban facilities are generally younger, there might be a need to spin off a unified education facility control group so that facility maintenance and construction would be coordinated and scheduled by its need and nature.
Urbanut: Who will drive the creation of smaller districts? Certainly no one in a leadership role with MCS or SCS. It is against human nature to shrink your area of influence. From a County Commission perspective, it is much easier to deal with one funding one district. This is especially true on the capital side.
Are you sure the older, more run down facilities are in the lower income areas? Douglas High, Manasass High, and Brewster Elementary are all new schools in less affluent parts of town.
When Cash and Aitken talk about TCAP comparisons to the rest of the state, they both say “of course, those are much smaller school districts.” The implication is smaller is easer to run, easier to excel. Why do we insist on taking the hard route?
Packrat: “I also wouldn’t be surprised if the state legislature doesn’t pass some law forcing the new SCS to “give” school property to new muni districts.”
The state legislature doesn’t need to pass anything. There is already a clear history of those buildings being ‘given,’ check your Memphis history.
Packrat: “old guy, you can’t wall yourself off into first place either. Nor wall yourself off from the problems of Memphis as a whole.”
I can wall myself off because…
– I do not need your money.
– I do not need your time.
– I do not need your kids to go to school with my kids.
– I do not need your services.
– I do not need your support.
– I do not blame the world for my shortcomings.
– I take responsibility for my actions.
I had a landlord a few years ago from Eastern Europe. He came to the USA with about $100 bucks and couldn’t speak English. He worked his tail off in three jobs, learned English became a manager at a financial institution and had four rental properties. Do you want to know what he thinks of people in Memphis that generation after generation choose poverty? Or what he thinks when the government takes his money to give to others that choose to not work?
Do you ever find it odd that around the world people are protesting (giving their life) just to have the opportunity to vote. Just to have the opportunity to say yes or no.
Not here, here we have over a billion dollars spent on education, breakfast, lunches, dinners, social services galore in Memphis alone and it is not enough. You still have a group of people that choose poverty. You will say they do not choose poverty – I say they do.
Our sense of right and wrong is so skewed by our richness that we have no comprehension that no one in this country, even in the worst circumstances has an excuse. Who does have an excuse? The kids that live here:
http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2011-08/somali-refugee-camp-expanding-kenyas-third-largest-city
I won’t attempt to convince the old guy of anything since he apparently has bought into the stereotypes taught to him by talk radio and fox “news” and his adoption of the “selfishness is good” philosophy.
All I can do is pray that fellow suburbanites are more inclined to think for themselves and recognize that we are all in this boat together. The suburbs get “our” money to exist as an affluent community.
The poor may get over a billion dollars for the social services he mentioned but the rich have received hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate welfare and tax breaks while vesting in foreign countries and playing the stock market.
“I can wall myself off because”
No, you can’t. What’s going on right now is proof of that. How exactly can you wall yourself off from the fact that Shelby County is losing its tax base, that wealth is flowing away from this entire region, that poverty is increasing, that crime is increasing, that people are moving away from the region(not just the city of Memphis)? When Fedex finally throws in the towel and moves its HQ to Dallas or Indianapolis, you think that won’t affect your property values, or your business receipts (if you’re a business owner) or that many of your friends, the people you go to church with, your relatives, etc., won’t be leaving the area for opportunities in growing cities? You can’t wall yourself off, the only viable choice for you is to leave the region. No man is an island.
BTW, I sure don’t want my kids going to school with your kids either. Frankly, mine are too good for yours.
Pack- I have no doubt there are a dozen or so residents in the area that believe they will simply retire/die before the cost of their indifference or ignorance fully manifests itself in their lives.
The state legislature doesn’t need to pass anything. There is already a clear history of those buildings being ‘given,’ check your Memphis history.
Nope, those buildings are owned by SCS. The city of Germantown paid nothing for them. If the city of Germantown wants them for it s own disrict, they’ll have to give some recompense. What, do you think they’re just going to seize them? Like I said, that issue will likely be adjudicated if it’s not negotiated beforehand. But no way, they’ll get them for “free,” especially since there is outstanding debt on them.
“Pack- I have no doubt there are a dozen or so residents in the area that believe they will simply retire/die before the cost of their indifference or ignorance fully manifests itself in their lives.”
Bingo. I’ve heard people basically say just that.
..oh and Researcher. I know it is a lot to ask but I also like your reference to the smaller school districts. Heaven knows we should not ask the county commission to commit any more time, thought or effort to something as trivial as primary education. The idea however would be fairly simple. If funding is attendance based, there would be little room for squabbling concerning the overall budget of each district. A unified facility investment board would simply add a separate group to the discussion. A carrot to elicit the commissions support would be that such a system would actually provide them with additional oversight concerning investments in the separate districts. More influence in exchange for longer attention spans?
I also concede the nature of the facilities in certain sections of the city. They have in fact been the focus of recent renovations and upgrades. However many facilities, specifically elementary schools, have not been so fortunate. I have only ideas as to why such as student enrollment and their attendance boundaries which of course translates to votes. You can throw one million dollars at a high school and influence many more potential voters compared to $500k invested in a neighborhood elementary school. Just ideas and nothing more.
Pack: What did MCS pay for Chimneyrock Elementary, the school that just moved from SCS to MCS? What did MCS pay for Kirby, Ridgeway, and the literally dozens of other schools that were transfered from SCS ownership to MCS ownership? The answer is $0. Why would a Germantown City School District be treated differently than a Memphis City School District?
That’s not accurate. There have been numerous times in which Memphis City Schools had to give Shelby County Government consideration for transferring the schools. In many cases, it took the form of a waiver from ADA requirements for a specific period of time as new county schools were built – which of course a serious financial consideration given to county government in the form of tens of millions of dollars in capital debt that did not have to issued. In some other schools, notably Cordova and Southwind, the financial consideration was eliminated because the two systems cooperated in their design and entered into agreements for their future.
PS: That’s why a school district in Germantown should be treated no differently.
Anon a bunch of times before again. I am a germantown resident and have no problem saying that germantown should have to pay for those buildings. Unless there was some legal requirement for how the previous school transfers between SCS and MCS were handled, and there arent, they provide no basis for Germantown to claim the buildings for free.
I am not a fan of this separate district but let me say one thing. The schools should not be set up in a way that makes us all feel like “we are all in this together”, or in a way to prove that one group can’t wall themselves off. They should not be set up in order to make some grand political statement about the region. They should be set up in the way that is in the best interests of the children’s education. If we had a hypothetical choice between a set up that maximized each child’s potential to learn, vs. one that did not, but that did send a message to the entire region that “we are all in this together”, I would hope we would pick the former. It will not make a child in North Memphis learn more or better by knowing that he is in the same school system with children in Collierville. I wish that in some of these discussions the importance of actually educating children in the best way possible was the focus, instead of all these other political considerations.
Researcher: We forgot to answer your earlier comment. First of all, thanks for the link. We remember years ago when we were sorting through a lot of studies about school structure and funding for a client, a friend, who’s a Ph.D. researcher on schools, gave us this advice: you can find studies to justify whatever position you want to take on better schools. We ended up that class size and teacher quality are much, much more important than the size of the district, but as we say, there are studies to disagree with that too.
Class size and teacher quality may be more important than district size. That’s not my point. My point is that district size makes a difference.
Yes, you can find a study to support any position. The NCEP study I linked to is a summary of studies. They acknowledge that some studies show large districts outperforming small districts. The fact that the vast majority of studies find the opposite, smaller is better, is the basis for their recomendations.
My point is this: If it is well established that smaller districts outperform larger districts, even when controlling for income levels, why would our region be moving to the largest of the large? If multiple studies show that low income students in particular are harmed by large districts, why would we want to expand the size of the district that serves most of our low income students? Part of the answer is motivations. What is best for the students is not driving this train.
Forget about the suburbs. We are moving in the wrong direction for our city students.
Maybe the new school board will revive the structure advanced during the city-county consolidation debates – creation of several smaller districts under an administrative umbrella. That’s always been our preference.
Researcher: “If multiple studies show that low income students in particular are harmed by large districts, why would we want to expand the size of the district that serves most of our low income students?”
Researcher you know that answer. The folks here are just using Memphis children as a tool to further their agenda. The constant racial attacks against white people, class warfare, and general apathy against anyone’s interest but their own is is a constant theme.
Whatever side of the issue you are on you have to appreciate the effort, but shake your head at their naivety. They simply do not know or understand how to impact change beyond a white paper.
Old Guy: It does seem clear that no element of this process is driven by a desire to see city students learn more.
old guy: you are correct about “agenda”, but that’s the crux of Memphis racist life in re politics, education, and every thing else just about in Memphis. That’s precisely why Memphis shall continue to play catch-up to other cities, and several other cities just don’t thrive on the “Memphis-type agenda” to that you allude
. In Memphis it’s never about students’ “learning” it’s ALWAYS about with whom the kids are going to school.
Memphis has not substantively altered their “agenda” in “education” since the late 1970’s when all kinds of “church schools” popped up, intentionally to avoid a court order for desegregation…to which most Memphians deny the obvious purpose for their initial development, and current longevity. “Education” in Memphis is hopelessly tied to deep-seated, sneaky racism, and it shall continue to be so for a very very long time. For one, I would never have children grow up in such a cesspool of thought, if given any logical choice. Fighting and winning that battle in Memphis is taking much too long to any casual observer, or transplant. Lots of other cities spend a lot less human capital on the hand-wringing, finger-pointing, and name-calling. There should be no consolation to say that “these problems happen in every city”…that’s a cop-out…of course they do, but it does nothing for Memphis to participate in “Misery Loves Company”.
Life is finite. Resources are limited. Time moves forward. There will be some cities that “make the cut” in the “tournament of Education”, or the “tournament of social justice”, and there will be some cities that will fail to “make the cut”, “finish in the top ten”, or even improve its “short game”. Hell, Memphis can’t even “drive the fairway” without actually enjoying “landing in the bunker”, year after year, match after match….
Memphis is but one “course” on which to “play”. There are a ton of better “laid out”, “manicured”, and “maintained courses” on which to “play” before you’re too old to ‘swing the club’ and then walk to the “19th hole”. Some “courses” provide more up-to-date “amenities” than Memphis TN it seems.
If you have 20 more years to “find your game” in Memphis, that’s what you should do, if you want to experience or “play a better round” on better “courses”, there are a plethora of options throughout the SouthEast, and the SouthWest……really, there are.
old guy doesn’t want to do that, shekel. he wants to wall himself off here in Memphis, or germantown, or whatever. btw, have you located your marine Corp service record, yet?
Anonymous: There is no city that can celebrate that it’s broken the code on urban education reform. We’ve got better chances than any other city with the convergence of resources available to us. Both of our districts have problems that demand innovation and new thinking. The reason that our school problems are magnified – unlike, say, Austin – is that we are not attracting and retaining talent. Some successful cities then have the luxury of ignoring the challenge of education today, but thankfully, here it is front and center. With on vision, one plan of action, and a singular and single commitment to our children, perhaps we can solve the problems of Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools.