This post is written by Jimmie Covington, veteran Memphis reporter with lengthy experience covering governmental, school, and demographic issues. He is a contributing writer with The Best Times, a monthly news magazine for active people 50 and older, where this appears in its latest issue.
By Jimmie Covington
Primarily as a result of a decline in enrollment in Shelby County Schools, the weighted average daily attendance in public school districts across the county dropped 5,023 this year — from 177,252 to 172,229.
The new figures put the county funding ratio between the county system and the six municipal districts at 77.92-22.08 compared to 78.62-21.38 last year.
The county figures include county- district operated and other public-funded schools within Memphis, the unincorporated area and the three county schools in Germantown. These schools had a combined weighted ADA drop this year of 5,552 while the six municipal districts had a combined increase of 529.
This year’s $419.4 million county funding for schools will be divided among the school districts based on the 77.92 percent ADA in county schools and the individual ADA’s in the municipal districts. Also, the county trustee will use the percentages to divide the revenue from one-half of the collections from the 2.25 percent countywide local sales tax. State law requires that one-half of the countywide local sales tax revenue go to schools.
(The new percentages are retroactive to the start of the current fiscal year last July 1..During the year so far, Trustee David Lenoir has been using last year’s percentages. He will adjust the divisions in the remaining payments this year so that each school district will receive its correct funding for the entire year.)
Three Municipal Districts Show Declines
The official ADA figures show that three of the municipal districts—Arlington, Germantown and Millington—have small declines in ADA this year although the enrollments in at least two of them – Arlington and Germantown – are reported to be up from last year.
Under the state’s Weighted Full-Time Equivalent Average Daily Attendance (WFTEADA) formula, the numbers of students are weighted differently in different grades in kindergarten through grade 12. There also is a higher weighting for special education students and for students in career and technical education.
Tammy Mason, superintendent of Arlington Community Schools, said that her district’s enrollment in K-12 is up 73 this year from last year’s 5,015. The WFTEADA is 6,223 this year compared to 6,271 last year.
Mason said, “As you are aware, the WFTEADA weights students differently if they are special education students classified as an option 7, 8 or 9, or CTE students and the specific area of study.
“So therefore, even though our student population has grown each year, the number of students enrolled in the above programs are lower than the previous year.”
Because of the overall decline in ADA countywide, the Arlington district’s ADA percentage this year rose to 3.61 compared to 3.53 last year.
Decline Mirrors Census
The official figures show that Germantown’s WFTEADA is 7,147 this year compared to 7,257 last year.
Responding to an emailed question about the drop, Germantown Supt. Jason Manuel wrote, “I think your information is incorrect. Our 2016-2017 WFTEADA is 7,147.
“We have increased compared to other districts and are receiving a greater percentage of the funding. Our current enrollment including pre-K is 5,967.”
The state’s report card on schools last year shows the Germantown district’s 2015-16 enrollment in K-12 was 5,791. The report cards for this year will be released later in the year.
Germantown’s ADA percentage is 4.15 this year compared to 4.08 last year.
The decline in enrollment in Shelby County Schools is consistent with U.S. Census Bureau estimates this decade which show that population growth in the county outside Memphis and in DeSoto County and another county or two in the metro area falls significantly short of fully offsetting the outflow from Memphis.
Basically, the estimates show that several thousand more residents are leaving the entire nine-county Memphis metro area each year for other places in the United States than are moving into this area from other places across the country.
Average Daily Attendance By District
Weighted average daily attendance numbers in school districts this year (with last year’s numbers in parentheses):
Shelby County Schools – 134,203 (139,755)
Arlington – 6,223 (6,271)
Bartlett – 10,452 (10,392)
Collierville – 9,984 (9,800)
Germantown – 7,147 (7,257)
Lakeland – 1,118 (1,055)
Millington – 3,102 (3,222)
This year’s weighted average daily attendance percentages (with last year’s percentages in parentheses):
Shelby County Schools – 77.92 (78.62)
Arlington – 3.61 (3.53)
Bartlett – 6.07 (5.85)
Collierville – 5.80 (5.51)
Germantown – 4.15 (4.08)
Lakeland – 0.65 (0.60)
Millington – 1.80 (1.81)
**
Join us at the Smart City Memphis Facebook page for daily articles, reports, and commentaries relevant to Memphis.
Very sad for Memphis. The two things that are preventing people from moving to Memphis or staying in Memphis are quality of public education and crime/murder rate. Those have to change to turn the tide. Tax incentives to corporations and other shiny lures are not enough.
Read the article Suz before carpet bombing Memphis.
“Basically, the estimates show that several thousand more residents are leaving the ENTIRE NINE COUNTY Memphis METRO area each year for other places in the United States than are moving into this area from other places across the country.”
Smart City is fond of saying “as Memphis goes, so goes the MSA.” Maybe that’s what we’re seeing here. But, as for people and businesses locating here, I think the comments of ServiceMaster’s CEO lent some insight into what outsiders are thinking. In a CA article from June 2016, Rob Gillette said the main challenges for businesses to locate in Memphis and for people to locate here are:
1) Crime
” … I told them the truth: If we don’t solve this crime issue it’s going to be a challenge for this entire city, not just us, right?”
2) Air transportation
“I told them transportation is a problem. Air travel. The traffic is light; there’s a reason.”
3) Race relations
“And Gillette indicated he does not understand why the city is still mired so heavily in issues of race. ‘That’s what I find kind of odd here,” he said”
Gillette also said this:
‘Google ‘Memphis,’ ” he suggested.
‘You’re going to find all the negative: That we’re second only to Detroit in terms of violent crime … You’ll hear about all the historical racial tension. You’ll hear about an airport where it’ll cost you a grand to get anywhere.”
**************
Whether we agree with him or not is irrelevant. This is one of those scenarios where perception is reality. If outsiders (those who could potentially move here) and insiders (those who already live here) see it the same way, we lose jobs and population.
Agree with Suz that this is very sad for Memphis and for the entire metro area. The well-known problems of the city have a huge impact on surrounding areas too.
Perception is very much reality and unfortunately the national and international perceptions of greater Memphis are about high crime, poor race relations and a backward, stagnant area for growth and development.
Just to be clear what we’ve been saying: So goes the Memphis economy and competitiveness, so goes the economy of the region.
But here’s what anomalous about the Memphis MSA. The toughest issues have been found in the region for decades. Headlines that say Memphis is #1 in poverty does not refer to the city, but to the region. It is the aberration in suburban poverty that drives Memphis as a region toward the top of the list.
We’ve also said that Memphis and Shelby County is an anomaly when compared to competitor regions in that normally as you drive out of the major county and travel out through the MSA, indicators that suggest a successful region like median household income and educational attainment go down.
To repeat what we have said often, those who point to Memphis as THE problem for the region need to join with Memphis to attack problems that they share with the city.
The problems are deeply rooted and eminate from the city out into the county and to surrounding areas in MS and AR. It’s a cancer that has spread. No doubt in my mind where this cancer started. The CEO of ServiceMaster was correct in his statement.
38120: Please read our comment. Problems are indeed deeply rooted, not only in the city but in the MSA. It is not a cancer that has spread. The cancer has always been there. Please read previous comment.
SCM, your slip is showing. You often hold up Memphis as the driver of the entire region, but when there are perceptions of any kind of weakness, you push that off onto the region as a whole and claim that Memphis is no longer a driver, but a victim of its surroundings. Which is it? Memphis can’t be the main player at the same time that it’s just another face in the crowd.
We didn’t say Memphis is a victim of its surroundings. We said the MSA has similar problems to Memphis and it’s why we should be tackling them with regional solutions rather than the rest of the MSA thinking that Memphis is the source of all problems.
It may be too nuanced for you, but this is what we’ve been saying since we started this blog 12 years ago.
Yes, this is very accurate George.
SCM seems to always wear blinders when it comes to recognizing that the numerous problems (cancers) in the city of Memphis are spreading throughout the Mid-South and causing decline in the life and prosperity of the entire region.
“SCM, your slip is showing. You often hold up Memphis as the driver of the entire region, but when there are perceptions of any kind of weakness, you push that off onto the region as a whole and claim that Memphis is no longer a driver, but a victim of its surroundings. Which is it? Memphis can’t be the main player at the same time that it’s just another face in the crowd”.
Apparently, nuanced positions are beyond some people. We know it’s easier to have your comfortable default positions (it’s all Memphis’ fault), but it’s not as simple as some folks want it to be.
We agree with you about perception, but the reality is the bigger problem. We write about these often, and we agree with you that they have an impact on recruiting new jobs and encouraging existing companies to expand the number of jobs.
I just Googled Memphis as George suggested from Gillette’s comments. I don’t get a lot of crime stories and gloom and doom. He seems to be seeing what he’s looking for.
The problem with most problems comes back to poverty. We don’t really try to fix it. So, we are really a city of 400,000 people if that who can afford to fly, shop, etc. We have to move people out of poverty to make the pie bigger for all of us.
When people say something is too nuanced for others to understand, it usually means that the person claiming the nuance doesn’t understand the topic very well or that he doesn’t have enough evidence to back his position.
I’m fine with tackling regional problems with regional solutions. But, many of your positions claim that regional players should put their concerns aside to help Memphis with its problems and you use the justification that as Memphis goes, so goes the MSA. In most positions, you’re claiming that Memphis should be considered above the MSA, but in this post, you’re claiming that Memphis is on equal footing with all other communities in the MSA and that the MSA is above Memphis.
Oh, George, give it up. You can’t seem to understand what you’re reading.
Do you even know what post you’re commenting on. This one is about school attendance. Try to keep on topic.
Thanks, Frank, for the reminder. Somehow, a blog post about the average daily attendance numbers became an indictment of Memphis. This did not make a judgement – it merely showed how the educational funding provided by Shelby County Government will be divided.
There are commenters that default to their everything in Memphis is awful talking points and as a result, we’ve driven way, way off subject.
We are tempted to say again that the point about the Memphis MSA is that it is anomalous, but maybe we’ll post the previous posts about this subject since we’ve been unable to explain it well enough for some folks to “get” it.
Memphis is just a stewing pot for crime and violence. As a teacher in SCS we witness the havoc plagued on a daily basis in the school system. A lot of the problems that we encounter in the city begins with the contribution of behavior within the schools. Students are not allowed to be reprimanded, only in a polite way?????????????????? Students are rarely suspended unless the offence is extremely violent. Teachers are bullied by principals and other administrators within the school. Most people don’t know just how bad off this city is My goal is to leave here and never look back. I think that the entire place should be shut down and left abandoned.
I always find it interesting from my “observation booth” that Memphians, especially Downtowners, East Memphians and Mid-Towners, are so smug when it comes to conversations about G’Town, “The Ville”, Fayette Co, etc…you would think they would be clamoring for insights on low crime, outstanding schools, thriving neighborhoods, low taxes, sustainable success etc., etc…but, no. Not sure what problems the subs have? I have never been of the opinion that Memphis gives two shakes about what is happening, or what is going to happen in the burbs. Head meet sand, sand, this is head.