Suburban Schools (Memphis, Germantown, Collierville: transfer, neighborhoods, school district)

[Tigertate]

I think the whole situation really comes down to local control of schools. The suburbs know that in a merged system Memphis outnumbers them from a population and representative standpoint. They do not trust the leadership in Memphis and they are not comfortable putting the education of their children in the hands of Memphis leadership. Having municipal districts lets the suburbs control education in their communities. I think that is what is best for the area. A merged system sounds good in theory, but the suburbs have to want to be a part of that system, not forced into a merger. Also, huge head count school districts do not typically function well. I can not think of one 100K plus student school system that is high performing and efficient.

[bigman123]

The whole things seems a little weird to me. I came up in an area where the local municipalities control their schools.

Theres one thing I really don't understand. How is it, the city of Memphis was able to get their own charter. But the 'burbs cant. Or is it that, what the 'burbs want is different from what Memphis had.

[ColliervilleMom]

Originally Posted by Tigertate

I think the whole situation really comes down to local control of schools. The suburbs know that in a merged system Memphis outnumbers them from a population and representative standpoint. They do not trust the leadership in Memphis and they are not comfortable putting the education of their children in the hands of Memphis leadership. Having municipal districts lets the suburbs control education in their communities. I think that is what is best for the area. A merged system sounds good in theory, but the suburbs have to want to be a part of that system, not forced into a merger. Also, huge head count school districts do not typically function well. I can not think of one 100K plus student school system that is high performing and efficient.

+1 - right on the mark tiger!

[LAangel9190]

Just a thought from a St. Louisan- Allowing suburbs to create their own school is a great idea for the wealthy suburbs, awful idea for the impoverished ones. St. Louis county has 23 school districts. If those were all combined into one, perhaps the tax dollars from the very wealthy districts would support the very poor districts. Nope! Instead, the district that I live in just spent $10 million on a LOCKER ROOM (!) and there are several districts in one part of the county that don't have books.
So, just keep in mind that though there are good things about having many school districts, your poor communities may suffer more than they do now. Also, there are talks every so often of merging into a St. Louis county school district, and it never goes anywhere because nobody wants their wealthy school district to take on the burden of a poor, struggling district. Once cities start breaking off and making Germantown Schools, Collierville Schools, etc, it's going to be really hard to reverse that if it fails. Just my two cents

[Longtimelistener]

Don't know about St. Louis county but here in Shelby County all the schools would be funded at the same amount per pupil with the cities putting in any extra that is needed. Much better idea than everyone being in the same pot and those dollars being shorted in the affluent areas to pour into the less affluent.
It should be equally spread then the municipality decide how much extra it kicks in. Memphis will end up having to go back to what they did for years before this fiasco hit and pump in some dough.

[Tigertate]

Memphis City Government has NO interest in adding any additional money for education, especially when considering the MOE law that mandates that you give the same amount or more every year. They have made that very clear (i.e. the surrender of City Schools Charter).

[Longtimelistener]

I think they finally realized it didn't matter how much you pour into it the inner city schools still wouldn't produce better numbers.

[characterRef]

Memphis is doomed just because of the lack of education in the public sector in the first place - most of the private school "erupted" (esp "church affilifated" LOL) in the first place, not for the need of quality education, but to avoid a federal integration order

that should tell you all you need to know about the place

[tigerphan]

I think the long term viability of Memphis depends on good school districts within Shelby county.

I fully support the Muni districts, and I think that if they want to tax themselves to improve their own schools, then they should have every right to do so.

I actually would like to see a special school district setup within the Memphis city limits one day.

[tigerphan]

Originally Posted by Longtimelistener

I think they finally realized it didn't matter how much you pour into it the inner city schools still wouldn't produce better numbers.

Blindly throwing money at inner city systems does nothing to improve education. That strategy fails every time. I'm starting to think it's almost entirely driven by special interests who want to preserve and solidify the same systems that have been complete failures for decades. I've lived in a many cities in my life, and I've seen this exact strategy fail miserably in places like St. Louis, Atlanta, and New Orleans.

Seeing those collosal failures has actually changed my political preferences when it comes to education.