Suburban politicians, Chambers of Commerce and anti-consolidation firebrands are like the pyromaniac who starts a fire and then shows up later to say that we all need to work together to put it out.
After years of pursuing special school district status for Shelby County Schools, and without a fleeting concern about Memphis City Schools, this group now calls on city school leaders to come to the table and find a compromise that benefits the county district.
This time around, things went differently. When the county district revived its pursuit of special school district status, they lit a fire that may end up giving them third-degree burns, because this time, Memphis City Schools said enough is enough.
Shelby County Schools interest in district cooperation is strange, considering that in previous years, as Shelby County Schools demanded special school district approval, we can’t remember them showing any desire – much less sincerity – for a compromise to make sure Memphis City Schools wasn’t negatively affected.
Burden of Proof: County Schools
Everything has changed. Today, they call passionately on Memphis City Schools to meet with them to find a compromise, but it’s a little like Mussolini calling on the Allies to compromise as the war for the fascist was going down the tubes. It begs the question: why should Memphis City Schools come to any table until they’ve gotten a specific proposal from Shelby County Schools?
The suburban Chambers of Commerce – without even a hint of satire – issued a press release: “As business leaders we understand the importance of communication and that calmer heads prevail when emotions run high. The Shelby County Chambers Alliance would like to urge the leadership of the Memphis City Schools and the Shelby County Schools to accept the joint offer made by Mayors A.C. Wharton and Mark Luttrell to help facilitate an amicable resolution to the issues facing both of our school systems over the coming weeks. It is our belief that the leadership our Mayors would bring to the table could bring another perspective and perhaps help us move past this impasse?”
This interest in calmer heads prevailing during the days of high emotion is something new, we presume, because it was noticeably absent during the consolidation campaign. What impasse are they trying to move past? There’s no impasse, because Memphis City Schools has control. If they truly want a resolution to the current controversy, why are they not just telling Shelby County Schools to stand down and end its pursuit for special school district status once and for all? After all, it was the county district that set all this in motion?
It’s amazing to see all this newfound interest in Memphis City Schools by suburban leaders who have shown nothing but disdain for it for years, and that has beaten up city schools to sell their towns to new business and to developers. As a result, there’s no one who can believe that if Shelby County Schools had the upper hand, the suburban Chambers and anti-consolidation zealots would be showing any concern for the city district.
Giving Up on Freezing
Here’s the thing: unless Shelby County Schools is willing to abandon its brass ring – freezing of the county school boundaries – how is there to be any compromise? Shelby County Schools Chairman David Pickler is pretty blunt that this is his ultimate objective and he’s even said he’ll negotiate pretty much anything to get it.
Lacking in all his talk about freezing the boundaries is one cogent reason given by Mr. Pickler for why it would be good for Memphis City Schools. In light of decisions that the county board has made over the years, it’s up to the county district to prove its good faith and to advance a reason for the benefits of freezing the boundaries that isn’t based on racial factors that often loom large in its decisions.
More to the point, the school boundaries are frozen already. This happened when the Chapter 1101 growth plan agreements were negotiated and because the boundaries of Memphis City Schools and City of Memphis are co-terminus. In other words, we already know exactly what the boundaries of the district will be. That’s why Shelby County Schools is in effect asking for changes to annexation reserve agreements that were negotiated by leaders of every government in Shelby County.
Caught in the crisis created by themselves, the suburban politicos already are shifting to their default positions – fear and fiction. It’s like the consolidation campaign all over again as they use misinformation and cherry-picked research.
Fictions
At the top of the list is the fiction that somehow Memphis City Schools will lose its Gates Foundation funding and Race to the Top revenues if it surrenders its charter. As usual, they offer no proof. Meanwhile, they assume that educational funding will go to the lower Shelby County per pupil level than the higher Memphis City Schools, although there’s no way to predict this at this time.
Last week, a “fact sheet” said that “every study that’s ever been done on consolidation…has shown that taxes will go up” and added that there are no economies of scale. Simply put, that is wrong. First, taxes alone is an incomplete picture, because studies in Tennessee have shown that the costs of consolidated school districts have increased at a lower rate than our two school districts. In other words, in the long run, the tax rate may go up in the first few years as the districts combine but over time they level off and remain much lower than ours.
In addition, numerous research has concluded that economies of scale is a benefit of consolidation. The “fact sheet” by consolidation opponents also states that research says that large urban systems need to be smaller. Actually, research is mixed on the size of districts and on balance researchers say that size has not been shown to be relevant to improved performance.
Then, the fact sheet said the University of Memphis report on the special school district has a “funding plan, which is never mentioned, that would keep the funding formula of Memphis City Schools and Shelby County the same.” Actually, the U of M report looked at impact (not positing plans) that two alternative boundary lines would have on the revenues and expenditures of the schools systems with property tax alternatives under both boundaries, and the so-called plan is today’s funding arrangement.
Firefighting
All of these suburban leaders calling for compromise are anxious for Memphis Mayor A C Wharton and Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell to act as mediators for a negotiation, but it seems to us that at its essence this is the responsibility of Memphis City Schools Board of Commissioners and the suburbanites want to use the mayors as vehicles to increase their influence in discussions with city board members.
We hope the mayors will be wary, keeping in mind how many times Shelby County Schools officials have walked out of similar meetings of the minds in the past decade and how little good faith they have shown. This time, we’re hoping Memphis City Schools keeps the heat up so that if there are negotiations, they produce substantive results rather than ending up as a stalling tactic by county schools.
In the weeks ahead, Memphis City Schools’ has a new theme song, the Billy Joel hit: “We didn’t start the fire; no, we didn’t light it, but we tried to fight it.”
Seems to me the county school board shoulda read a MAP before agreeing to buy properties in the memphis annexation reserve areas at inflated prices from a bottom feeding developer-knowing that they would eventually have to turn them over to MCS.
I/O, that would have meant jackie Welch, et al, would not have made as much money. WE can’t have that, can we?
The one trump card that MCS has is its ability to vote to surrender the charter. I believe that they should go ahead and do this ASAP, not only because of Pickler and Co.’s obsession with a special district but because the reasons to have a municipal district in Memphis no longer exist.
Davidson, Knox, Hamilton, Madison, and Tipton counties all realized this, now we need to do the same. Surrender and unify!
I agree with dwayne: it’s time for MCS to give up its charter. We need to get into one boat together, Memphis and the rest of Shelby County, so that we quit butting heads all the time. You think Southaven has big issues with DeSoto County or Nashville with Davidson County? No, because they’re in it together.
Since MCS boundaries are required to be co-terminus with City of Memphis boundaries, how can SCS freeze any boundary until Memphis annexes all of its reserve land?
Maybe SCS and MCS should agree on school locations (renovated & new) that will match zoning decisions by City of Memphis and Shelby County in the Memphis reserve territory. Or better yet, maybe capital expenditures for schools should be taken away from SCS and MCS and given to M&SCDPD.
IO, Packrat, Andy, Dwayne and Finegold
If you want to make an impact, email the two mayors, the members of MCS BOE, County Commissioners, City Council and Shelby Delegation. Now. Tonight. Email addresses can be found at the following – MCS: mcsk12.net; County Mayor and Commissioners: shelbycountytn.gov; Memphis Mayor and City Council: Memphistn.gov; Shelby Legislative Delegation: state.tn.us
Make yourself heard. It makes a difference. Time for the City of Memphis and MCS to stand their ground and do the right thing.
You will read in the morning or hear on the news that more studies are being called for. NO MORE STUDIES! An independent study was conducted by the University of Memphis which SCM has posted. Read it. Come to your own educated conclusion.
What is right is right.
Thanks Louise,
I did attend the school board meeting tonight and got a better idea of the board members; thoughts. I have already sent an email to my district Board member and one to Freda Williams. I figured sending one to Whalum was a waste of time and it seems that it’s the same for Freda, she is hardheaded against surrender and seems to search for reasons to be against it and ignores logic.
I will also write the others. I figure it can’t hurt. Ans yes, this issue has been studied for years. There is plenty of precedent for it and the U of M study was only the most recent and most telling of our choices here.
Dwayne, you’re correct about writing to Whalum being a waste of time. I did write to him to request his vote to surrender the MCS charter and this was his reply:
kwhalum@comcast.net to me
show details Nov 24
I categorically reject your solicitation to surrender, and I am delighted that you don’t have a vote.
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
I started to reply and tell him au contraire, I do have a vote and you won’t be getting it, but figured that would be a waste of time.
I also wrote to Ms. Williams and to Dr. Warren. No reply from either of them.
I think its reasonable to determine what would happen to the race to the top and gates money before pulling the trigger. That’s too much money to risk without doing the responsible thing and asking, and it shouldn’t be that hard to find out the answer. Then, assuming the money would not be pulled, and after making sure that the money would have strings on it sufficient to stop Pickler from spending all of it on county schools, surrender the charter. If the money would be pulled, some or all, or even if the SCSB could use the money on county schools, surrender might still be the best long term solution, but they need to know the answer and have that debate first. So someone call Obama and Gates and get on with it.
“maybe capital expenditures for schools should be taken away from SCS and MCS and given to M&SCDPD.”
BWWWWAAAHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAA!
you owe me a new laptop-I just spit cappucino all over mine!
the county commizzoners got to BE county commizzoners due to the $$ paid them by the ‘developer interests’ (unlike some, I will not sully the fine lower classes of the dirtbag development community by naming names).
Nobody listens to the planners-not when the ultimate decisions are made after the envelopes are passed out at Shoneys. And so it goes…
IO-
“Nobody listens to the planners…”
Ouch, my pride.
O.K. since the school boards went along with the developers on school sites and the county commissioners were paid off and nobody listens to the planners, then I suppose we’re just screwed. At least give up MCS charter so we don’t have to watch two boards screw up. “Envelope please”.
We shouldn’t wait a long time to find out if the Race to the Top and/or Gates money would be affected. We can wait for a few months to find out and low and behold, we have a special County District. We have a better chance of long term funding if we go ahead and vote for surrender and the City voters confirm.
Tremendous column in the CA by Geoff Calkins.
Voters in Memphis deserve the opportunity to vote on this issue. MCS Board members: you owe us that opportunity.
As for Whalum’s response to Suzanne, what a clown act. Man, he needs his ass kicked.
Jones-
Read the article and I am glad at least someone saw fit to draw upon the Judgment of Solomon regarding this issue. However, instead of a resolution to compromise on the guardian identity of a single infant, are we not seeking judgment on actually putting 2 halves of a single infant together? Then the question becomes who would be the better custodian of the whole child:
A) The parent that was willing to give up their half for the betterment of the child.
B) The parent that would deprive both halves of a brighter future in order to assure their status as a custodian goes unchallenged.
Parent B needs to live up to its constitutional responsibility for the education of all Shelby County’s children, not just the ones who live in the suburbs.
Good thoughts re: the Calkins article, Urbanut
I thought cutting babies in half was at the very LEAST a MISDEMEANOR in Tennessee since 1957?
when did that law change?
TEST
I don’t know anything about Stephanie Gatewood or her performance as an MCS board member, but this comment is spot on. In fact, because the board’s vote is not the final say, but rather gives the citizens a chance to vote, there is no excuse for any of these clowns to vote against it. To do so is the highest form of political arrogance.
“You know, ultimately, the school system belongs to the voters,” Gatewood said Tuesday after hours of emotional debate the previous night. “It doesn’t belong to us as board members. We should be the liaison to give them the right to make that decision.”
This isn’t just another way for the county to get out of their responsibility?
Not just another way to keep bad ol memphis off their turf?
Do what you gotta do to make things right, not protect power or privilege of boards or commissions.