They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.
That’s Hosea 8:7 and it’s a verse familiar to the small group of African-American ministers who this week sang Kumbaya with leaders of a county school district who have repeatedly made racially-based decisions about its students’ future. That’s precisely how we ended up with segregated county schools like Southwind High School where the enrollment is 98.2% minority and 1.8% white or the three dozen white kids at Southwind Elementary, where the student body is 97% minority.
Whether the ministers understand it, Shelby County Schools Board Chairman David Pickler and his comrades have indeed reaped the whirlwind. County school officials can continue to present one-sided powerpoint presentations on the evils of consolidation and dose out their misleading conclusions, but they’re focused on the wrong subject.
Act of Faith
This argument is no longer about consolidation, because that rests with the Monday vote of the Memphis City Schools Board of Commissioners. Rather, if the county board wants to have any influence over the potential consolidation of the city and county school systems, its members have to do something they’re unfamiliar with: acting in good faith.
Their normal political games – and the attendant fear and fiction – aren’t going to work this time around, because the burden of proof rests with them to offer up a proposal and prove good faith to end the current crisis. Ultimately, if Mr. Pickler wants to avoid statues being erected to him as the “Father of School Consolidation,” he needs to develop a nuclear disarmament plan based on an air-tight agreement that Shelby County Schools once and for all abandons its schemes to become a special school district.
Anything less means nothing. Ultimately, it means that Memphis City Schools Board of Commissioners cannot afford to stand down from its promise to surrender their district’s charter and to produce de facto consolidation. The only thing that could possibly dissuade them is an airtight, no-risk plan of action to protect the education of city students, and we’ve seen nothing even close to that so far.
The Trust Factor
To date, the city board members have sent a strong message about its seriousness, but they’ve largely been met with lots of political rhetoric and predictable calls from commentators for calm and discussion – and trust. Unless someone can assure Memphis City Schools that there’s something besides talk at the end of this rainbow, they have little choice but to take this bold action.
It’s also difficult to imagine how substantive negotiations can begin if Mr. Pickler has already telegraphed his deal breakers: frozen boundaries. And it’s clear from the county schools board meeting that there are still some hardliners when it comes to the special district itself.
Ministers can repeat their soundbites about the board needing to do what’s right for the children, but that’s exactly what the city board members are trying to do. Some people act like it’s incumbent on Memphis City Schools to stand down and to talk compromise, because this is an issue that needs more research and consideration. Commentators lament the lack of trust that exists between the two school districts and act as if more time will somehow solve the problem.
All of this ignores a simple, undeniable fact: Shelby County Schools has been pursuing a special school district for 10 years, and we cannot recall the same level of interest when the need was for the county district to compromise and to extend an olive branch to Memphis City Schools.
Rhetoric
We’re always for substantive discussions, but if the past is the best predictor of the future, there’s little reason for optimism or for city board members to feel confident that there won’t be some games afoot once the present crisis has passed. And with the feeling that city schools’ future is at risk, the commissioners have no reasonable options to consider or to pursue.
Meanwhile, the African-American Baptist ministers talk of a Memphis boycott and shopping in West Memphis. It’s worth noting that half of the local option sales tax for purchases in Memphis go to city schools, so in the end, their boycott hurts no one more than the students for whom they profess fealty.
If there is a theme emerging from the people criticizing Memphis City Schools Board of Commissioners, it is one of situational logic. While the ministers talked boycott, Shelby County Schools Superintendent John Aiken says that he does not believe that bigger districts are not better districts, which calls into question why the Shelby County Schools is trying to freeze its boundaries to keep from getting smaller. Of course, he also said consolidation of the two systems would lead to increased operating costs of at least $100 million, a specious assertion, but such is the nature of the county district’s response.
Line in the Sand
It’s now been almost a month since the world changed because Memphis City Schools drew a line in the sand, and in all that weeks, Shelby County Schools has not presented more details to validate its claims that it has a plan that would not harm Memphis City Schools, either in its funding or its pedagogy.
The trust issue hangs over this question like smog in Los Angeles. It’s hard to create trust in the midst of a political tempest, and because of it, the calls for it ring hollow. It seems to us that as long as we continue our tale of two communities and shout to each other over walls erected by government and schools, we’re destined to always live in a “we versus they,” “city versus county,” and “he said-she said” community in which suspicion reigns.
If there is a nuclear option, we’re for using it to blow up the distrust and get us all on the same side of the table once and for all. This too is the intent of Memphis City Schools Board of Commissioners, and while it may not be pretty, it needs to be done. We’re never going to trust each other until we share the same goals and objectives and understand that our future is mutually interdependent.
(School)house Divided
Today, we’re not even close, and if Shelby County Schools had its way with its special school district legislation, we would always be divided and divisive. The county board now seems reluctantly to understand the gravity of the current problem, but it’s hard to get excited about their vote this week to put off their quest for special school district status for a few years.
To defuse this, they have to do more, like pulling the plug on the special school district permanently and understanding that in the future, they cannot use city schools or the city itself as their punching bag or the foil for their political pandering. Their worst dream is likely to come true: school consolidation. Because of it, for the first time, a district called Shelby County Schools can be in reality a countywide system.
It’s there in the Bible used by the Baptist ministers: “And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” That’s Mark 3:25.
Why would you want this to pass so bad…
Is your goal for every middle and upper middle class white and black kid go to private school?
When you actually preach about rebuilding Memphis, do you think that top talent moving to the city is going to be impressed there are ZERO public school options? As a relatively recent transplant I can tell you having a consolidated school system would have probably meant I would not have moved and if I had I would have looked in Olive Branch very seriously.
Sadly enough, Piperton is one exit down from Collierville due to 385. Olive branch is a short ride down. Ultimately, there will be nothing positive to point to about this town once you and your cohorts are done trying to socialize it.
I’m hoping that Down meant “socialize” as in social engineering and not a reference to the socioeconomic system.
I also fail to understand why those that are opposed to the measure assume quality at their local school will decrease. By all indications the existing school zoning, teachers and leadership in the SCS would remain the same. If nothing changes at the local level, why would one increase their commute time?
Draino,
Bullcrap.
Urbanut, how could they remain the same? How could someone justify the racial disparity between schools. I do not see how they could, and would expect systematic changes within two years. It is fair to debate whether that is good or bad, but what should not be open to debate is what historically happens to these areas. Folks quit moving there, folks start moving away, and instead of having a MCS problem it will be the SCS problem. That is a terrible thing for the city of Memphis.
What is even worse, the proponents of this are putting the children of Memphis at risk. Just like you could not longer argue districts, I fail to understand how the county could continue to justify the student in Memphis with an outdated funding formula. Also, the parents that rely on charter schools in MCS are putting their kids education at risk since SCS does not support charter schools.
Anyways, this whole debate seems more like a gotcha thing than the usual rational conversation from SCM.
The only “gotcha” going on here is that David Pickler just got his wang caught in his zipper and he doesn’t know how to get it unstuck. SCS asked for this, now they’ve got it.
“How could someone justify the racial disparity between schools” so you just want to quarantine the “problem” in bad ol’ Memphis?
#1 Why would the 70% of people in Shelby County who don’t have kids in school move?
#2 Why would the schools outside Memphis suddenly become bad because a countywide school system is managing them?
Finally, the children of Memphis are already at risk. But there will be a new county school board so it doesn’t matter whether the current group likes charter schools or not. They won’t be making the decision. A badly new board will do it.
#3 The top talent we know in Memphis have their kids in public schools including some research fellows at St. Jude’s who could put their children anywhere. There are schools in the city system that are every bit as good as those in the county system.
#4 We need to create a county for all of us, that puts us together to address big questions and challenges, and that calls on us to join hands to work together for the common good. That’s more important to us than whether a few racially biased parents move out of the county. At least we’ll finally know that those of us who stayed here are ready to roll up our sleeves and make things better for every child, not just children with parents with means.
P.S.: What makes you think the Fayette County school system and the DeSoto County school system educate students any better than a countywide one here? So why would anyone want to move there, particularly in light of the growing educational problems there and the stress on the public system and tax structure.
I love the way that people afraid of the future like to label everything as socialism. Why is unifying our school systems got anything to do with socialism except in the mind of someone who can’t deal with facts and would rather just parrot nonsense.
#1 Why would the 70% of people in Shelby County who don’t have kids in school move?
The definition of insanity. Of all people to be ignorant on this topic…
– At first, folks stop moving into any of the border line districts that get shifted around to promote diversity.
– The folks with kids that can move do – have to weight 5-15k a year in private school vs. hit on home price
– As folks with kids move to different areas, lack of people moving in the area begins to change. Look at previous annexed areas.
– Folks that would have never moved begin to consider it and leave
– Full born flight takes place. Area turns to crap.
#2 Why would the schools outside Memphis suddenly become bad because a countywide school system is managing them?
They don’t. It will take some time. It will start with folks asking why that school is 98% black. Districts shift. Old MCS board is reelected — unfortunately the same incompetent majority in Memphis will elect for everyone the same incompetent leadership again.
#3 The top talent we know in Memphis have their kids in public schools including some research fellows at St. Jude’s who could put their children anywhere. There are schools in the city system that are every bit as good as those in the county system.
Comments like this irk me. You are just a blatant lier or being stupid on purpose. Look at the STATISTICS!!! The two folks that do this are part of the 1% that do send their kids are the extreme minority. Your second point, sure there are a few schools just as good. Again, take the whole and compare it to the whole otherwise you sound like a nut job.
#4 We need to create a county for all of us, that puts us together to address big questions and challenges, and that calls on us to join hands to work together for the common good. That’s more important to us than whether a few racially biased parents move out of the county. At least we’ll finally know that those of us who stayed here are ready to roll up our sleeves and make things better for every child, not just children with parents with means.
Hah! You say that but for the past few years you whine about folks that leave. It destroys the city… I thought that is what you cared about. Using your same logic, why dont you role up your sleeves right now and take care of your problems for ‘every child, not just the parents with means.’
In fact, your entire last sentence is just dumb. You can do all of that today without destroying other folks lives.
People, people, people unifying the districts is the only sane and logical future for the children of Memphis and Shelby County. This is change that is needed so very dearly.
We get to start with a clean slate. Design a system that benefits all the children and residents of the County. Many options besides charter schools will be available countywide that Shelby County students currently has no access to such as optional schools, more emphasis on English as a Second Language (do you know that MCS has teachers available that can teach students in over 50 languages?), excellent Pre-K programs, better and more sports facilities, new schools that are not built as warehouses (literally) but as quality institutes of learning and much more.
No one is going to be uprooted from their current schools with the possible exception of eliminating the 30-45 minute bus trips to and from school that now exist in Shelby County.
MCS offers school choice. Not the case with SCS.
we get new school legislative districts, a new structure for delivery of educational services and the elimination of so many duplicate services such as personnel, information technology, education programming, planning, purchasing, construction, et al.
Current plans being floated around right now see the system as being divided into up to 5 separate school areas of about 30-35,000 students each. They would function as small school districts on their own, with the administration of the overall system being just what it is “an administrative entity” guiding support services. 5 or whatever school areas will allow parents and the community to have more say in how their smaller area will be run; the programs that will be available; the hours of operation and maybe even the length of the school year.
Unification of MCS and SCS is a giant leap forward for Memphis and Shelby County. It will produce improved programs for students, hopefully improve student performance in both MCS/SCS, a more diverse school system, more involvement from parents, teachers, the business community and even those of us that have no children, but have a vested interest in the future of our great City and County.
Run if you must across State and County lines. But in the end it will be your loss, not the students and citizens of Memphis and all of Shelby County.
SmartCity there is a notion that as soon as the County Schools and City Schools merge as a sign of disapproval white people will take their kids out of Shelby County schools and either enroll in private school or Desoto or Fayette County.
Many opponents of the merging don’t disagree on the tax implications but they do feel Shelby County Schools doesn’t have the personall nor do they care to educate urban children(specifically) black children.
Many feel that the only reason Shelby County Schools seem to be better is because the kids come from households where parents have degrees and they make more money and isolate their kids environment to the more affluent. There is not a Shelby County School better than Memphis’ best which is White Station. But White Station is best because of the curriculum in its optional schools and the background of the parents that send their kids to that school. Shelby County Schools don’t necessarily have a great curriculum.
I do not believe many prominent Memphians have their kids in city schools considering their are White Station,Central, and Ridgeway are the only city high schools with white students.
Those opposed to a larger school district seem to think Memphis should be looking to deannex the last areas and school to come and freeze those boundaries. Meaning we should deannex Hickory Hill(Kirby Middle and High) Raleigh(Craigmont & Raleigh Egypt) and Cordova (Cordova Middle & High). Permanently deannex Southwind-Hacks Cross and prevent it from becoming city.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Memphis could shrink its footprint and reduce the amount of land it must serve. The city should have implemented an urban growth boundary decades ago. Memphis needs as much infrastructure in the central core not the entire county. Do we really believe that suburbanites whether they be white or black won’t move in droves to bedroom towns like Oakland or whever just get away from African-Americans?
Question for Not so Smart-
Your irrational fear of the SCS shifting student populations based on diversity ignores the reality that the SCS are already substantially diverse in their by ethnicity standards. Your fear of increased diversity is perhaps the most blatant case of an ethnic bias (racism) driving one’s thought process I have had the displeasure of reading on these pages. Spare us the filler and just say you don’t want your kids going to school with black children- it allows for much shorter posts.
Urb.
Bingo.
Mtiger:
There are many, many other schools that are wonderful besides White Station High. Snowden, Peabody, Delano, Rozelle, Colonial Middle……Check them out sometime.
Just like busing mandated by the federal courts decimated the City and lead to an explosion of growth in Shelby County outside of Memphis, I predict that the law of unintended consequences will again yield unexpected consequences for Memphis and Shelby County.
We labor under the myth that SCS is a superior school district. It is at best average on its best day. Most of all, its approach to education lacks innovation, emphasizes old teaching methods, and relies on a do what I say attitude. There’s no reason this can’t be a win-win for both districts, and hopefully, some of the nationally recognized work taking place in MCS can nudge SCS to be better.
Louise I know all about Peabody, Idlewild, Colonial, Snowden, Sea Isle. Those schools are located in areas where the households are more affluent,the parents are normally educated, and they actually feature diversity. Most of the other MCS schools don’t. Lets be honest we have more high schools in MCS than the rest of the state combined but the makeup of the households attending these schools is what differs from the rest. What were to happen if the underperfoming schools with low enrollment were used as community facilities instead of schools and their students were sent to higher performing schools close to their neighborhoods?
Until we have fundamental change in the educational attainment rate of families we will continue to name a small list of MCS schools that consistently outperform county schools like the aformentioned along with a host of others that don’t perform as well.
mtiger
That idea has been researched and it is a great idea. Newer high schools built in the last 10 years are designed with outside, controlled access to their libraries, computer labs, sports facilities and the like. MCS tossed around the idea of turning old high school facilities into community centers when it closed and merged Southside. Cooperation was needed by the City, and it was not forthcoming at the time.
Perhaps the merger will spur this on. MCS is working now with City HCD on a cooperative Hope 6 redevelopment involving closing Georgia Avenue School, giving old Alonzo Locke to the City to use as part of the housing plan. There are plans for a community center within the development.
Older schools contain libraries, health clinics, before and after school care, etc. all can be opened to the public with the proper security for the children.
Administrations in MCS change and good ideas are often set aside. Too bad the current administration didn’t follow plans in the works by the previous administration.
I didn’t name all the higher performing schools, but using Delano as an example – Frayser is not an example of what I would call an “affluent”community. But, there are many parents from within the City and from outside who send there children there to be educated.
And Scott – busing did its damage. Unifying schools will not be the end all you predict it to be. Something like 50,000 Caucasian children within Memphis and less than 10,000 go to MCS now – that won’t change. Affluent suburbanites already send their kids to private schools. Why do you think that St. George’s, Briarcrest, ECS and the like have already built or are building new campuses on the eastern boundary of SHELBY COUNTY and over the border in FAYETTE COUNTY?
SmartCity,
I’m not going to try and counter every wildly biased statement you made in your post (although you should know that Southwind Elementary was over 70% white when it opened and serves the same area today it did then).
Your post fails on what should be the only litmus test for this discussion – how would charter surrender help city school students? Your only comment on that topic is “blow up the distrust and get us all on the same side of the table once and for all.” Do you really believe that the biggest obstacle faced by city students is the lack of trust between the two boards or a lack of support from the suburban side? Do you suppose suburban residents will bring a little resentment with them when they are brought into this marriage against their will? You assume suburbanites will not cut off their nose to spite their face when that is exactly what the MCS board is poised to do.
You’re very angry with the SCS board. I get that. I’m pretty upset with them too. Returning to Nashville over the strong objections of MCS was a bad plan. I said the same thing at my campaign kickoff 14 months ago. Now is the best opportunity MCS will every have to influence the actions of the SCS board.
TO LOUISE
You cannot connect school districts to their communities with “administrative districts.” You have to have smaller, independent districts with their own elected boards to achieve that connection. The economies of scale you dream of simply don’t exist. The idea that we should blow things up in hopes of building something better is incredibly reckless. You hope that a Phoenix will emerge from the ashes, incorporating the best of both systems. Far more likely is that a hastily built combination will include many bad decisions and be less effective than either of the current organizations.
The focus that MCS has on meeting the challenges of educating the urban poor have spawned several hopeful developments. Teach for America is an example and the Gates Foundation grant is the poster child. Do you really want to hit the reset button on these initiatives? If you blow up MCS, merger issues will completely consume the administration for at least two years and possibly much longer.
mtiger:
“…. and their students were sent to higher performing schools close to their neighborhoods.”
In principle this sounds like a good idea, in practice we are already doing it albeit informally. Many of the best MCS schools are already packed with good students and have long waiting lists of parents trying to get their children into these schools.
“Comments like this irk me. You are just a blatant lier or being stupid on purpose. Look at the STATISTICS!!! The two folks that do this are part of the 1% that do send their kids are the extreme minority.”
That 1% minority you cite is close to 20% at Snowden where our sons attend school. The overall MCS stats are not nearly as useful for parents considering MCS-each school needs to be evaluated individually. Here are Snowden’s stats:
http://www.city-data.com/school/snowden-school-tn.html
If MCS surrenders its charter and SCS takes over the whole thing, I don’t see people fleeing Germantown or Collierville for Fayette or DeSoto Counties. I think schools like Houston High School or Collierville High School, being in affluent neighborhoods, will continue to be strong schools.
My 3 kids are in SCS and I won’t be going to fayette County (which has generally horrible schools) if Shelby County becomes responsible for educating all of Shelby County’s children. What david Pickler doesn’t want anyone to figure out is that SCS does a good job mainly b/c a high majority of its parents already did a good job (by being more affluent, more educated and having more intact families emphasizing education) before enrolling their kids there. MCS has a much, much harder job to do.
Ken:
Answer the question the other way around: How would charter surrender hurt Shelby County Schools?
Our attitude toward Shelby County Schools is based on deep experience and clear evidence of how race plays into its decisions. It’s really not even worth arguing that one.
Packrat: Well-said and thanks for thinking about the entire community’s best interests and rejected the isolationist tendencies by some.
Ken, don’t drink any kool-aid next time you’re at a board meeting. Your points sound so reasonable, but they just aren’t connected to reality. Distrust is the answer and if you don’t think it has an effect on educational funding, decisions, and politics, you are living in a suburban fantasyland.
This has been coming for a long time, come on folks, you don’t think we could run separate but equal school systems forever, did you? Pickler just pushed the issue too hard and backed MCS into a corner. Even if SCS gets all of its isolationist wish list fulfilled by the state legislature, if Memphis goes down the tubes, it will take all of Shelby County with it.
“Our attitude toward Shelby County Schools is based on deep experience and clear evidence of how race plays into its decisions.”
SCM, ever heard of this, “The pot calling the kettle black.”
This blog is full of government hacks, tree huggers, and socialists. SCM is probably the worst offender of all, because he pretends to care about the city. I hope you feel comfortable that no amount of social engineering will change the fact that you finish last. You can’t annex first place, get use to it.
PKB: This isn’t about social engineering. It’s about doing what every other metro county in Tennessee has already done. And it’s about acting in the entire county’s best interest, not just the chosen few.
There’s that term again. Social engineering. Socialize. What does social engineering have to do with this? Is there some experiment going on of which I am unaware?
Pot, if you live here, you’re finishing last too. If you don’t, then you have no dog in the hunt.
What is SCS’s attempts to create a special district, if not a blatant attempt at “social engineering”, Pot? Why is that kind of “social engineering” OK? Pls clarify. As SC has said, EVERY other metro area in the state has consolidated their schools. Why is “social engineering” OK for them but not for us? ?????
“if you live here, you’re finishing last too.”
I do not live in Memphis. I live in one of the suburban towns.
“What is SCS’s attempts to create a special district, if not a blatant attempt at “social engineering”, Pot? Why is that kind of “social engineering” OK? Pls clarify”
It is not social engineering because it is the way things are, have been, and will continue to be in the future despite your best efforts.
” Why is “social engineering” OK for them but not for us?”
Who said it was okay? And what makes you think that it is working.
“I do not live in Memphis. I live in one of the suburban towns.”
Sorry to disappoint you but you’re “here.”
“It is not social engineering because it is the way things are, have been, and will continue to be in the future despite your best efforts.”
An attempt to wall off the “bad” folks IS social engineering, whether you admit it or not.
“Who said it was okay? And what makes you think that it is working.”
If you look at the direction Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga are going, something’s working right. Moreover, your statements imply that there is something “right” in attempting to wall off a certain segment of a community (and you are part of Shelby County, correct?) as if the problems of that community can be ignored and isolated, or even should be. They can’t be. So move to Fayette County, send your kids to Fayette-Ware. See ya later.
What this boils down to, is that MCS has the legal right to give up their charter and make SCS take on its legal responsibility to educate all of the children here. And given SCS’s past lies and refusals to cooperate in good faith, they probably should.
Louise, I guess the proof will be in the pudding if the votes favor surrendering the charter.
Right, wrong, or indifferent, I predict the long term result will be an exodus from Shelby County in search of “better” schools.
antisocialist: I think you’re going to be surprised. 70% of us don’t have kids so why move, and are the people outside Memphis so stupid they won’t wait and see that nothing rweally changes before they head out. Also, if they’re looking for better schools, they’re misguided if they think they’ll find them in any of our surrounding counties.
“Answer the question the other way around: How would charter surrender hurt Shelby County Schools?”
Students in schools like Arlington High will suffer in at least three ways:
First, to whatever extent the school benefits from expertise provided by the central office, that help will disappear. HQ will focus almost all of its attention on the failing schools on the state takeover list. Arlington can fend for itself.
Second, resources will be reallocated. Despite a total lack of evidence, we still believe that more money will improve education outcomes. Teachers aides, intervention specialists, and whatever help we can imagine will be provided to the failing schools. Those resources will come at the expense of the schools where involved parents prop up performance. I’m not saying this is immoral or even wrong, I’m simply saying it is endless. Arlington High will have to get by on less resources than they have today and that is not positive for the AHS student.
Third, and most importantly, parents will find it much harder, if not impossible, to engage with a 150,000 student district. It is overly difficult today for parents to engage with SCS. It will be impossible in a merged system. People engage (give of their time and energy) when their efforts generate a return. When their attempts to engage are fruitless, their willingness to engage will decline. THIS is the problem with mega-districts. The administration becomes disconnected from the customer, public school students and their parents.
SCM often cites data when it supports his position. In this discussion, past experience points in the opposite direction. School decisions should have only one evaluation criteria; will students learn more? In Davidson, Hamilton, and Knox, they do not. Look at the test scores for the five large districts (3 consolidated plus MCS and SCS.) MCS does as well or better than all 3 of the consolidated systems in test scores for African American students. The combined MCS/SCS generates much better test scores for African American students, white students, and all students. MCS costs less than Nashville Davidson and the blended MCS/SCS costs far less than any of the other three.
We’ve had a large district/urban school experiment underway in TN for 15 years. The test data says the two separate school districts cost less and deliver higher test scores.
With all its myriad problems, MCS has a clear focus; educating poor urban youth. The consolidated districts unintentionally use the high scores in the suburbs to lessen the urgency in addressing the low performing schools.
You still didn’t answer my question: How will combining the systems improve learning for Memphis City Schools students? Don’t feel bad. None of the 5 board members who voted to surrender answered that question either.
Ken:
We think the first point is speculation. There is no reason to presuppose what the final structure or priorities will be.
Second, MCS gets more flexible funding sources like Title I and we’re not able to see how those resources can be focused away from the children that they by law have to serve. (We’re not sure why you’re focused on Arlington school.) Parents that are active in schools will continue to be active in schools. Of course, in the past, SCS has shifted some of the costs of tests and materials to parents, because in large measure, they had the ability to fund it.
Third, this sounds like a straw man. Parents in MCS don’t engage with the central office because they are school-focused and school-oriented, something that Dr. Cash has given great weight to. There is no consensus in the research that large districts are disconnected. The general consensus is that the size of the district doesn’t really matter.
It’s oversimplifying to say that the districts cost less and have higher tests. You have to look at the comparable populations and there is research done by state government that costs of the consolidated school systems rise at a much slower rate than here. And we’ve not seen any of the consolidated districts showing less than a strong sense of urgency over the education of at-risk kids.
We think that combining the school districts immediately eliminates the feeling of “less than” for its students, a feeling perpetuated by the dual systems and by the rhetoric of two districts who are at odds over most things and the rhetoric of SCS that it is somehow brilliant in its efforts.
Also, the message that we are sending way too many MCS students is that they have no value in their own community. Money isn’t everything, but MCS needs a serious transfusion of capital money to correct dismal conditions that tell too many students that they just don’t matter.
Most of all, we need a deliberate, cohesive vision for all of our schools and students, not one for this one and one for that one. There is value in creating a learning environment, and based on all the bragging done by SCS over the years, we would think that they would welcome the opportunity to share all of those virtues with all children.
This vote does not somehow diminish students in SCS. It only elevates all children as top priorities for our community.
“We think that combining the school districts immediately eliminates the feeling of “less than” for its students,”
I believe this summarizes the rationale behind surrender. No one can identify a single positive impact on student learning, but we believe the students will feel better.
Ken,
Admittedly, I read this comment/ question somewhere else (The Flyer), but I think it is a good one that deserves to be answered:
I know your stance has been for smaller districts in the place of larger ones. What I fail to understand is why you do not believe the charter surrender could in fact result in smaller districts that have little regard for municipal boundaries? To simply break apart the MCS or SCS as separate entities would fail to address the underlying issues. What has been stated thus far is the potential need for a complete reorganization of SCS in the wake the public vote on the matter. The assumption thus far has been that the resulting organization will in fact be a single school system encompassing all of Shelby County. However, I agree with the original author in that I fail to see why the resulting school administration body could not in fact be composed of multiple smaller districts with single source funding at the county level based on enrollment figures. If current regulations would permit, it would appear that surrendering the charter was the best shot we have ever had as a community at reorganizing the local school systems all at once.
Ken:
As you know, we were excited when you ran for county school board because you gave such a better alternative to Pickler, but unfortunately you seem to be stuck on the talking points as so many suburban politicos do. If SCS is so excellent and is the paragon of outstanding education, why would it deprive these skills and knowledge and experience from the children in Memphis?